File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎490r] (627/1080)

M The railway fare from Artik to Askhabad has been raised to 24,000
roubles and from Artik to Cbarjui to 104,000 roubles. The average
fare between two stations is 1,000 roubles.
The passage oyer the frontier at this point is prohibited. A few Turkmen
and wandering Persians manage to evade the patrols of the Bolsheviks on the one
side and of the Persian gendarmes on the other. Inoculation of railwav passengers
is carried out at Artik.
A new assessment for the purposes of revenue, promulgated at Lutfabad by
the Persian authorities, is meeting with such opposition. The inhabitants complain
that the handling of the water question as between Russian and Persian claims was
contrary to system and to season with the result that crops have been ruined. The
existing assessment is 600 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. a year and 100 kharwars of agricultural produce,
recoverable from 150 houses. It is proposed under the new scheme to increase that
by 400 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. . The people complain that owing to the rapacity of certain officials
and to the stoppage of trade with Russia they are unable to comply with this im
position.
One of the chief articles of export to Russia from this point was grapes. These
now have to be disposed of for one kran (five pence) per six Persian maunds (about
40 pounds).
Archigan, Khakisar, Qalat, Bolan, etc. —Nothing of importance.
Sarakhs — 12th to 18th August. — (i) The Post Commandant of Russian Sarakhs
and the Military Komissar, Denikin, were found drunk in Persian Sarakhs and abus
ing passers-by. They were arrested by Persian police. The Chief of the Russian
Special Department was also in Sarakhs at the time. He took over the prisoners
and sent them to Russian Sarakhs under arrest. Subsequently the Komissar was
released but the post commandant was sent to Tashkent.
(w) Some Russian soldiers of the garrison were interrogated as to the unit and
higher formation they belonged to. They knew nothing beyond the number of the
company they belonged to.
(Hi) A murder was committed by a gang of Baluchis one of whom belonged to
Russian territory. He was tracked to his dwelling and his surrender demanded by
the Persian officials of the Russian Special Department. No reply has been
received.
(iv) A Tcafila proceeding from Reshed to Sarakhs was attacked by five Baluch
horsemen 4 miles east of Gumbzli. Nine pony loads of loot and 4 horses were
carried off by the robbers to Russian territory via Sher Teppe.
(v) One hundred Afghan families moving from Bakharz and Khaf in Persian
territory have arrived on the frontier at Pul-i-Khatun.
(vi) Fifty Jamshedi horsemen have looted Afghan cattle and returned to
Russian territory via Ak-Robat. Forty of them then crossed into Persia and looted
Persian families near Zorabad. It is feared these people will next visit Sarakhs, the
internal condition of which under the present Governor is not satisfactory.
(vii) A telegram has been received in the Russian Special Department to the
effect that one hundred Russian families from Andijan are at Tejen on their way
to Russian Sarakhs and that two hundred more families are following. It is thought
these people are destitute on account of the floods from the Amu Darya.
(viii) The Persian quarantine has been removed by the Persian authorities
but the Russians still keep theirs in force except in the case of those whom they wish
to pass in or out of Persia.
(ix) Grotesque stories are prevalent regarding some natural catastrophe at
Andijan. The phenomena of earthquakes, floods, and the descent of huge meteo
rites are equally believed in.
198.— Trans-Frontier.
Grozni (Petrovsk-Rostov Line). —A casual who left Grozni on the 20th July
states there was a garrison there of 5,000. There was revolution there and the
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