File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎499r] (645/1080)

. * n this connection it appears that the Bolsheviks are not every where in accord
in the matter of allowing Persians to return to their own country A letter inter
cepted in the Censors office, Meshed, conies from Sarotav and relates the diffi
culty encountered by Persians who are desirous of returning to Persia Their
applications are disregarded, the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. says, and they are set to do menial work
Another writing from Baku says the same but adds that those Persians who will
volunteer for service on the Resht rent secure thereby a release from the into'erable
condit ions of life in Azerbaijan. He states there are some 1,500 who have enlisted
with the intention of deserting on the first opportunity after arriving on Persian
soil. &
Sarakhs. The usual newsletter has not been received during the week which
is probably ascribable to the Censor.
203. Trans-Frontier.
Baku. August 7^.—-The Taqiov Weaving Mills are working. They employ
400 men where m former times the pay rolls included 4,000. The majority of fac
tories are closed. J
Prices are prohibitive, bread costing 4,000 roubles a pound and common cloth
10,000 roubles a yard. Troops get ready-made clothes, other Bolshevik employes
8 yards of cloth half yearly which many are compelled to sell for bread.
Recruiting is in progress, both persuasion and force being employed.
Cholera is decreasing. The majority of deaths are due to hunger.
The working classes and cultivators are very discontented. Hungry crowds
ask for .bread or permission to emigrate but none is given. Corn is collected from
the cultivators and one quarter of the market price is paid them.
Krasnovodsk. August 9th .—Cholera is on decrease. Quarantine and com
pulsory inoculation are in force.
There has been a strike of railway employes lately. The disaffected have been
induced to return to work by promises of a good time coming.
There are no supplies in the surrounding villages.
Kizil Arvat. August 13th .—The total number of hands employed in the rail
way shops here which are the principal ones in Transcaspia is given as 1,000.
They are unable to complete the monthly lay-out of work owing to starvation.
Traffic in arms in exchange for food products still passes between the Bolshe
viks and Yomud Turkmen from Persia. On a recent occasion thirty camel loads
of cereals were bartered in this way.
Malaria and venereal diseases are very prevalent in the community. (The
narrator himself was in an indescribable state from debility and exhaustion. He
was nevertheless enlisted in the Khorasan Gendarmerie as an armourer.)
The Superintendent of the railway shops is Alexander Nikolaiev. The shop
hands get quarters and 3,000 to 12,000 roubles a month according to qualifications.
Their rations are scanty and they are given leather clothing.
There has lately been no troop traffic past Kizil Arvat.
Askhabad. August 8th .— 40 wagon loads of arms and ammunition have re
cently been railed east, it is believed for Siberia. The projector mounted on
a truck which was present at the depot has been sent to Kokand.
Troops are on short rations, in rags, and very dirty. Those that arrive from
beyond are in no better case.
Speeches and addresses are being delivered to mass meetings for the object of
collecting funds for the famine stricken areas. Ladies in gala attire go about
aqiong the assembled crowds collecting subscriptions.
Russians are being gradually replaced by Turkmen in the various branches
of the administration of the Republic of Turkestan. It is even believed that
officers of another power would be employed as advisers, Itahans being mentioned
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