File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎672r] (991/1080)

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The informant, who proceeded to Krasnovodsk from Khiva by the desert
9 °onn ? e preSe T at th " Stage Suli ’ mid - wa F 011 thi « road, of some
2,000 Khivan troops and a number of women and children.
65. Baku. "“An intelligent arrival who left on the 1st February estimates
the garrison up to the 21th January to have been about 25,000. On that
date some 6 000 troops left either towards Tiflis or the Persian Azerbaiian
rentier, and the subsequent departure of troops for the Georgian frontier had
reduced the garrison by the end of January to about 10,000.
On January 29th a report reached Baku that Kemalists and Georgians
had combined against the Bolsheviks and Armenians, that the Turks had
reached Ganjah, and that fighting had commenced. It was further rumoured
that miny Caucasians in the Bed ranks were deserting to the opposing side.
The informant states that on the date of his departure a quite unprece
dented condition of depression and anxiety existed in the town which fatalities
due to the prevailing epidemic did little to dispel. A split in the Bolshevik
parties had also declared itself, and 4 res occurring in a large ammunition
dump, and in a kerosene tank, were attributed to incendiary action.
Public meetings were forbidden from the 27th January, and on the 31st
January martial law was proclaimed.
The Persian Consul, Manshur-ul-Mulk, assembled his nationals and
warned them to prepare to return to Persia if no improvement in the local
situation manifested itself.
E. A. E. BEDL, Lieut.- Colonel,
British Military Mission;
Meshed.
General Staff'.