File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎647r] (941/1080)

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The Merv weekly market is reported again interrupted, resulting in
loss to those participating.
great
• x Rhaf. About 25 young Heratis have been selected for instruction
m telegraphy and will depart for Tashkent after ISauroz where the course,
said to last two years, will be undergone.
Tuans-Prontter.
101. Baku .—A casual who left Baku on the 19th March notes the arrival
there of 100 Azerbaijan cavalry with two machine guns from Enzalli. He puts
the Bolshevik garrison at the latter place at 300, 3 8 -centimetre guns, 9 machine
guns, and two aeroplanes. None save Bolshevik employes was allowed to land
there.. There is a daily postal service between the two ports. Military stores
are being brought hack from Enzalli. Eood in Baku is very scarce and there
is much consequent migration.
Krasnovodsk .—An Afghan of reported Colonel’s rank, by name Sultan
Muhammad Khan, with a following of 5 Afghan and 3 Bolshevik soldiers,
2 Russian female servants, a clerk and a Peshawari, left Krasnovodsk about
the 13th March. He entertained the local officials to dinner before leaving.
He was provided with four boxes of treasure.
^ Ckjt 4
Askhabad .—Details of the troops comprising this garrison are defective
being exceedingly difficult to obtain, due to spy hunts. Agents confess to be
able to emerge only at night at which time not much in the way of observation
can be effected. One estimates the garrison at 3,000 but information of its
subdivision is lacking. The permanent garrison is probably somewhere near
that figure but constant arrivals and departures cause violent fluctuations. The
Bolsheviks are very frequently moving troops. Such has always been a notable
feature of their military arrangements in Transcaspia and Turkestan. Whether
this is due to had staff work, to the amateurishness of military Komissars, to
fear Qf troops being togeiher too long and discussing their grievances and
hardships, or to a desire to impress their Asiatic subject populations with a
show' of military strength, is not apparent. Thus an agent may give an account
of numbers of troops, nomenclature of units, etc., which he who follows does not
corroborate. Both reports may be in the main correct but the shifting troop
movements of the Bolsheviks causes the one to vitiate the other. Eor a State
which issues no Budget, which finds its resources by confiscations and per
quisitions and pays its employes with paper and impressed food there can be no
anxieties on the score of an overloaded bill for troop movements by railway.
An observer on the frontier gave the garrison of Askhahad as 8,467, due
to a reinforcement of 5,744 from Tashkent. Proof of this movement must be
awaited. The same source reports the Bolsheviks beginning to remove their
possessions from Piruza and Garmab prior to the restitution of these places to
Persia, also that survey operations by them are in progress for the demarcation
of the new frontier line, Ulyanov, the brother of Lenin, being expected in
Askhabad on the 16th March in this connection.
It is stated that wheat acquired from Persia—or rather that modicum
w hich is not sent to help feed the capital—is not distributed but given to
State bakeries. The bread prepared therefrom is issued by ration cards, those
having no cards, i e. } those not in Bolshevik service, having to go without.
1 A meeting was held in the town at which one Mirza Jalaluddin Khan
addressed those present. References were made to the British in Persia, and
Persians were advised to be under no apprehension of them returning. Ulyanov
is reported to have said (he was acting as chairman) “ we shall shape our
“ policy according to the result of the negotiations proceeding at Teheran and
“ which will be known on the return of the Russian delegates therefrom
Merc .—An agent reports seeing an Afghan Colonel passing through Merv
en route to Constantinople-see under Krasnovodskl Great discontent prevails
among Turkomans and many families are emigrating to Afghanistan. Posters
put up by the Bolsheviks are torn down at night, necessitating the presence of
sentries. Meetings are organised among the troops wherein Bolshevik principles
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