File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎450v] (548/1080)

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Muhammad Keza Khan, commanding the Sardar Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division. of Bujnurd’s men, and
ParajuJla Khan, are at Chinaran, 45 miles north-west of Meshed on the
Quchan road.
Bajgiran .—October 10th.
When the gendarme garrison of Bajgiran fled into Russia for fear of the
Kurds the resident agent of this office accompanied them and for a similar
reason. They were apprehended at the Russian post of Gaudan and forwarded
to Askhabad. The Gendarmes were detained in Askhabad and their officer sent
on to Tashkent. The agent is in custody and has been interrogated. It is
thought locally that he will be shot but, being a Persian subject, it is unlikely
the Bolsheviks will do more than imprison him for a time.
L utfabad, Archangan, efc.—-Nothing of importance.
Sarakhs ,—October 7th to 14th.
Karim Khan Baloch has failed to arrest Khwaja Ali Khan who has fled
towards Akhal. Another expedition from Merv, numbering 150 men, has met
with no better success.
Three Bolshevik owned shops have been opened in Persian Sarakhs for the
purpose of barter only. They refuse money and accept only food products in
return for their wares.
A party of five Jews has arrived from Samarkand en route for London.
A conference is being held in Tashkent to deliberate on questions relating
to export and import of merchandise. It is presided over by a general officer
Representatives have been summoned from Russian Sarakhs.
The Bolsheviks have cleared these frontier districts^ of food grams and
bhusa. They have no more money for cash purchase and are even paying for
the transport of grain with oil, cloth, etc.
238. TRANS-FRONTIER.
Transcaspia .—Very little information from Russia is available for reasons
which have already been given and nothing at all from the country west of
Merv. From that centre tales of famine conditions and general misery and
destitution continue to come in. The tattered condition of a relief of troops
which arrived from Tashkent lately is noted. Many of these last were without
rifles. The labour organization which compelled the grouping of work people
such as tailors, seamstresses, bootmakers, etc., under supervisors appears to have
been abandoned and, in its place, the work is allowed to be taken home and
there turned out. The roads in the vicinity of Merv are described as being
infested with robbers which is confirmed by accounts from Sarakhs. The
Turkmen militia embodied by the Bolsheviks for patrolling the villages and
roads is suspected by many to be the source from which these robbers are
derived. Trade is dead but there is a good deal of illicit trafficking carried on
by Jews and Turkmen in a sort of partnership, the Turkmen acting as
go-betweens and carriers.
Jews occupy important posts in every department of the Bolshevik admi
nistration, especially in the directions of commercial, political and military
intelligence. Jews are reported to predominate among the students in the
propaganda school in Takhta Bazar. On the other hand this may be a ruse
adopted by cunning individuals for a State-aided escape from Russia.
The Bolsheviks’ almost frenzied efforts to get the maximum possible out of
the land at the next harvest have made them turn to the Jamshedis even as
potential husbandmen. These, however, show no great desire to follow the life
laid down for them, preferring to pursue their ancestral calling of brigandage
which, since the Bolsheviks disarmed them, is not easy.
Turkestan .—The general economic conditions are the same as described
above and it is curious to note that an observer in Samarkand was struck by the
miserable appearance of a new draft of troops who, like those reported in Merv,
were unprovided with rifles. A cotton mill near Samarkand railway station
gi