File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎424r] (495/1080)

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SECRET.
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INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY FOR THE WEEK ENDING SEPTEMBER 17TH, 1921.
216.
KHORASAN.
Meshed.—The movement towards the secession of Khorasan from
Imperial Persia has reached a fourth stage. The first was the overthrow of
the Provincial Government in April last by Muhammad Taqi Khan and
his assumption of the chief military and civil control in his own person; the
second was the abdication of the officiating Governor General, Najd-us-
Saltaneh and the self-appointed succession to his place of Muhammad Taqi
Khan; the third the definite declaration of non-recognition of the Teheran
Government and a military expedition against certain tribal subjects of
the Shah; and the fourth the intimidation of an hostile action against the
British representatives in Meshed.
There have been several indications lately that this last was in process
of germination. The first indication was that Muhammad Taqi Khan
considered an observation of chests of arms by members of this office to have
been inquisitive, the second that he told he Consul General he should not
hesitate to arrest persons intriguing against him, the third that be definitely
named two persons he suspected to Major Bronekovski, ex-Chief of Khorasan
Police, and the fourth that he told the Consul General he harboured several
indictments against the British in Meshed. If he received definite proof
that there had been any intrigue against him from that direction he would
arrest the principals.
The latest aggressive movement against British interests in Meshed has
been the sealing on the 16th September of the telegraph offices operating
between India and Teheran respectively and the retention of their records;;
the censoring of all messages in clear, an insistence on an exposition of the
substance of all cypher telegrams received and despatched, and the censor
ing of all postal and other documentary matter received by this office from;
the frontiers and from elsewhere in Persia.
Private and other mail matter is also declared liable to scrutiny.
Inasmuch as the British civil authority in Meshed has wished that
nothing be done to provoke reprisals against the British community it has
been considered advisable to suspend all Persian intelligence work. Any
attempt at military measures of a precautionary nature, or even of re-
sistence to arrest, has been deprecated as provocative of counter action and,
possibly, of reprisals
The reasons for this aggressive attitude will be found in the military
successes of Muhammad Taqi Khan’s small columns operating in the
Turbat-i-Haidari, Turbat-i-Sheikh Jam, and Karez areas. The second
named was occupied apparently without opposition on the 11th September
and Karez about the same time. The veteran Hazara chief. Muhammad
Reza, Shuja-ul-Mulk, was driven across the Afghan border and has taken
refuge in the Afghan frontier post of Kafir Qala.
The sum of these operations must be that this front has been to a con
siderable extent liquidated, to use a Bolshevik but useful expression.
There still remain in the field Salar Khan Baloch, Imad-ul-Mulk, and
Jafar Khan, as well as one or two others of less note. Saiad Haidar is at
large but his movable possessions have arrived in Meshed as loot (September
17th) and he may be regarded as a negligible quantity for the present.
No information is available on the operations supplementary to those
of the tribes and which were to have been initiated by Shaukat-ul-Mulk ot
Birjand in conjunction with the Amir of Kain.
The situation on Muhammad Taqi Khan’s western front is that the
main body is still at Sabzewar, there is a body of troops thrown forward to
Mazinan "the Zaidar Pass is held by the Khorasan Gendarmes, and those of
them who were sent on to occupy Abbasabad, evacuated by Salar Nasrat s
men, have been withdrawn to Mazinan. ir . .
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1 EATED 24 th Nuv
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