Publications, Newspaper Cuttings, Photographs and Correspondence about Persia and the Persian Gulf [‎314r] (630/879)

16
DIARY OF A TRAVELLER.
The Bakhtiaris.
AHWAZ, January 19
Having completed my journey through their
country it would seem appropriate to offer
some observations in regard to the Bakhtiaris,
particularly in view of the important part
they have recently played in Persian politics.
With a Bakhtiari chief practically leading
the Government in Teheran, and likely to re
main for some time to come the foremost
figure in the new regime, the Bakhtiaris have
become a factor to be included in any examin
ation of the Persian problem.
Our acquaintance with them is of com
paratively recent date. Though Layard under
went the experiences so graphically described
in his “Early Adventures” some seventy years
ago, that fascinating work was not published
until forty years later. Meanwhile other
travellers had given us accounts of the Bakh-
tiaris all of which have been comprehensively
summarised by Lord Curzon. Subsequent to
the appearance of the latter’s “Persia” fur
ther wanderers have confirmed what their pre
decessors observed, the common conclusion be
ing that the Bakhtiaris were exceptionally
clever thieves, and that they possessed the
independent and generous character usually
associated with mountain peoples. Most are
agreed that they constitute tine material for
the army, the experience of Sir Henry Raw
linson, who recruited Bakhtiari regiments while
engaged in reorganising the Persian army con
firming this opinion.
Tribal Organisation.
To understand recent events in Persia in
which the Bakhtiaris were concerned some
knowledge of their internal economy is neces
sary. The tribe appears always to have been
divided into two main sections, the Chahar
Lang and the Haft Lang. In Layard’s time
the Chahar Lang were predominant and held
all the important tribal offices, the rival sec
tion apparently being without power or in
fluence. Jealous of the prestige of Layard’s
friend, the Chahar Lang Illkhani (Chief of
the Khans), Mohamed Taki Khan, the then
Shah, sent an expedition into his country and
broke his power. The Ilkhaniship was then
given to a Khan of the Haft Lang, since when
that section has completely lorded it over the
other. The present position is that the fami
lies of four brothers of the Haft Lang, all de
ceased, monopolise the tribal offices and com-
pletely rule the tribal councils. Were there
unanimity between these sets of cousins the
THE TIMES OF INDIA MAIL EDITION.
Interested Constitutionalism,
The Bakhtiaris are at present ardent cons
titutionalists, as well they may be, for adop
tion of the cause has made one of their Khans
the most important man in Teheran, another
Governor of Isfahan, one of the most import
ant provinces, and two others governors of
other provinces. A good deal of loot came into
the possession of the tribesmen during the
troubles, and where that came from more may
come. I shall long remember how one horse-
man who rode with me for several days through
the Bakhtiari mountains rejoiced openly in
going home to his family with seventy tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
(£12). I asked him how he got so large a
sum of money and he explained with all the en
thusiasm of an expert that he found it when
they were pillaging a house on the way from
Kashan. Needless to say the tribesmen have
not the remotest conception of what a cons-
t.tution signifies, the most primitive form of
education even being entirely absent from their
scheme of existence. It is enough for them , that
their chiefs profess it, and that the profes
sion entails profit for them. Nevertheless the
ancient faithfulness of the tribesman to his
chief is far from what it used to be, and the
situation is now such that the various Khans
have to be extremely circumspect in their
treatment of their adherents. Special causes
in fact have been at work of recent years con
siderably to modify the internal situation and
to alter the simple and old-fashioned relations
which used to exist between the people and
their national leaders.
British and Bakhtiaris.
British relations with the Bakhtiaris have
been far from satisfactory at times during the
last few years. Official connection with them
commenced with the opening of the trade route
between Ahwaz and Isfahan. The firm of
Lynch Brothers undertook the improvement of
the existing track and the construction of three
bridges at an estimated cost of £5,500. Un
fortunately £8,500 was spent in the work, al
though only two of the bridges were built.
Lynchs asked for acknowledgment of the ex
tra £3,000, but the Bakhtiaris countered with
a demand for reduction on account of the un
constructed bridge. Lynch’s figure of £5,000
had been only an estimate, not a contract price,
so the extra charge was perfectly reasonable,
particularly as it would appear that the addi
tional cost was largely due to the Bakhtiari
failure to assist with labour and material at
cheap rates. At the sametime Lynchs, know
ing themselves to be dealing with Orientals,
ought to have been extremely careful about ex
ceeding the estimated expenditure. As it was
the Bakhtiaris regarded the additional cost as
an imposition and utterly refused to ack
nowledge it. The matter being referred to the
Legation, it was decided that Lynchs could not
demand the extra £3,000, while as regards the
-u
-Sf
I
-I
Complaints meet with no redress. But wors J.
of all from the muleteers’ point of view are the I
exorbitant prices charged for forage, when 7
ever opportunity offers. The animals must'
be fed on the road, and only the Bakhtiaris.
possess supplies. The object of the Bakhtiaris.
route is to cheapen the transport charges to,
the interior of Persia, Lynchs profiting by the-
traffic on the Karun River, the Bakhtiaris by-
the tolls levied on the goods in transit. But
the Bakhtiaris are killing the goose that lays
the golden eggs by neglecting to keep their
road in repair, by allowing the muleteer to be
mulcted and by failing to provide accomoda
tion by the way, this latter reason accounting
to a great extent for the closure of the road
for three months in the winter.
The Oil Fields.
The affairs of the oil syndicate gave rise to
difficulties of a much more serious kind and
nothing goes further to demonstrate Bakhtiari
ignorance of the world and affairs generally
than the behaviour of the Khans a few years
ago. A stipulation of the agreement between
the Bakhtiaris and the syndicate was that
guards should be provided for the exploitation
camps. £2,000 per annum was to be paid for
this protection, against which the Bakhtiaris
were to be responsible for the safety of life and
property, and to give compensation for loss from
robbery. Despite the guards, however, the
greatest inconvenience was suffered from con- :
tinuous and systematic robbing of material. |
Complaints were rudely met and relations be- •
came generally strained. In 1907 a European <
employee of the syndicate was assaulted in the 1
neighbourhood of the fields: the headman of a
village appeared on the scene and stopped dril- 1
ling operations: the manager of the fields was '
actually threatened by his own guards. In ad- :
dition to . this provocation the Bakhtiaris 1
threatened to denounce the agreement and to ‘
divest themselves of responsibility for the ,
safety of the employees if claims for compensa- |
tion of robberies continued to be presented. In ;
this intolerable state of affairs, the quarterly
instalment of the guard money was withheld 1
as a protest. A deputation of the Khans then
visited the Legation in Teheran demanding
payment of the money withheld, and the trans
fer of negotiations from the Ahwaz Consulate
to that of Isfahan, the official of the former
place not pleasing them on account of his sup
port of the oil syndicate’s claims. Both de
mands met with a refusal, whereupon the de
putation formally repudiated responsibility for
the protection of the camp. Meanwhile the
Legation had been pressing for the punishment
of the assailants of the oil company employee
who had been assaulted in July. As no steps
were taken by the Bakhtiaris the Legation ap
plied to the Persian Government which put
pressure on the Khans with the result that the
offenders were publicly beaten in October,
thieving still continued at the oil-camps, how-
ever, and as there seemed no prospect of im-
THE TIMES OF INDIA MAIL EDITION.
15
ek
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cern suffers on all sides. The general tendency is
to pay a larger dividend and to make but a small
provision, if any at all, on deterioration account.
This policy works out its own mischief in the long
run. In Bombay, a few mills have come to grief
on this account and have had to change owner
ships.
Co-related to the subject is the evil of over-
capitalization. Debts are piled up which have to
bear a heavier rate of interest than ordinary.
Stocks, and even mill machinery and other pro
perty, have to be mortgaged, and, unless pros
perous seasons follow, and help to get rid of this
load of heavily rated borrowed capital and in
terest, ruin stares a mill in the face. Such ruin
came over more than a dozen mills in Bombay six
or seven years ago. A company whose finances
are bad is liable to plunge deeper and deeper in
debt, till some windfall or rather lucky circum
stance intervenes and extricates it. But, finan
cially, the majority of Indian mills are in a far
more satisfactory condition. The keener struggle
which is certain to ensue as Japan becomes a for
midable rival in the Eastern market will certainly
try many an Indian concern, and the best remedy
lies in looking ahead and preparing for the con
tingency. Thus, in every way, it will be seen that
Indian millowners should put their house in order.
There is a prosperous future yet before them, but
the prosperity will, in a great measure, depend
on the way in which their mills are conducted.
TREATMENT OF SNAKE BITE.
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Major Leonard Rogers, the well-known patho
logist, writes as follows to the Calcutta papers
regarding the permanganate of potassium treat
ment for snake bite:—The press note issued by
the Sanitary Commissioner with the Govern
ment of India confirming the previously demons
trated dangers of the intra-venous injection of per
manganate of potash in animals js a condemna
tion of the local use of this drug at the site
of the injection . of snake venom. As advised
by Sir Lauder Brunton and myself this error
is doubtless due to the unfortunate wording of
the official statement, which might not unnatur-
ally lead the layman intel thinking intra-venous
injection of permanganate of potash had se
riously been advocated in the treatment of
human beings suffering from snake bite. A
perusal of the transactions of the Bombay Medi
cal Congress will show exactly the opposite the
truth. Both Sir Lauder Brunton and 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. condemned this suggestion as useless and
dangerous.. As a matter of fact, I have carried
out experiments on animals to test the possible
value of intra-venclus injections of per
manganate of potash and other oxidising
agents, both some years ago and more recently
the results being of negative value. It had
not occurred to me to be worth publishing
them in detail to condemn a line of treatment
which I am not aware of ever having
been advised in the case of man. and whie i it is
inconceivable to me any medical man would
venture to use in the absence of experi
mental proof of its safety and efficiency
I write these few lines in the interests of un
fortunate sufferers from shake bite as it Would
be disastrous if only who had to deal with such
cases should also be mistied into the serious
error of thinking that local applications
of permanganate of potash have been proved
to be dangerous. Of course, the press
note does not refer to this well-known treat
ment at all. Sir Lauder Brunton’s local appli
cation of permangnates to destroy the venom at
the site of its injection before it has had time
to enter the circulation still remains the one
generally applicable method of. treatment, which
has into favour both a scientific experimental
basis and a record of remarkable success in prac
tice.
[AGRICULTURE AT URAN.
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f
ci-
it.
38-
n-
Mr. V. H. Gonehalli, Divisional Inspector of
Agriculture, Konkan, addressed a large' meeting
of cultivators and others interested in agriculture
under the presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. of Mr. R. L. Ghurat, vice-
President of th e District Local Board of Kolaba,
in the afternoon of the 15th instant at the Uran
Mahal Kacheri. Among those present were the
Mahalkuri of Uran, the Sarkarkun of Uran, Khan
Bahadur Hormusji Maneckji, Mr. Tribhowandas
Madhawdas and several other gentlemen.
The President in introducing the lecturer as an
officer specially appointed by Government for the
improvement of agriculture in the Konkan Dis
trict and as a very intelligent and educated gen
tleman thanked Government for appointing a divi
sional officer for the Konkan and explained how
the Konkan lands had considerably deteriorated
in their productive capacities during recent years
and how it had become necessary to think of
manuring them for restoring their former pro-
ductiveness. He also referred to the laudable
efforts made by Government through their Depart
ment of Agriculture for the improvement of agri
culture. He had, he said, corresponded with the
Department of Agriculture, requested Govern
ment in a paper read at the Agricultural Con
ference held at Poona, last September, to do some
thing for the Konkan Districts and had personally
explained to His Excellency Sir George Clarke in
a private interview at Alibag, in December last,
the necessity of educating cultivators in matters
appertaining to agriculture by the empioyme it of
trained officers. In this way he had beoa partly
instrumental in bringing about the appointment
of Mr. Gonehalli.
Mr. Gonehalli explained at some length the
work already done by the Agricultural Depart
ment and the work that was likely to be done in
the near future. He also explained how ground-
nuts, potatoes, guinea grass and other crops un
known in the Konkan could be advantageously
grown there, and said that by co-operative credit
among cultivators, selection of good seed and
scientific preservation and use of farm yard man
ure, it was possible to improve the present agri
cultural practice. Experiments on small scales
at any rate might be usefully made. The advant
ages of the Cownpur Meston plough over the local
one were also clearly put forth. Mr. Gonehalli
concluded his address by earnestly appealing to
his audience and to all interested in agriculture to
co-operate with the Department of Agriculture in
introducing useful reforms and in bringing about
a change in agricultural matters so that those who
tilled and those for whom the tillers worked might
obtain better results from improved methods of
cultivation.
SYSTEMATIC COTTON THEFTS.
At the Esplanade Police Court, Bombay, Rao
Bahadur Chunilal II. Setalvad, Acting Third
Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. Magistrate, disposed of on Friday,
charges relating to theft of cotton from the
Sassoon Dock, Jathas or Cotton Green stocks of
Messrs. Ralli Brothers on 12th May. Dinshah
Nasarwanji Engineer (24) Superintendent of
these. Jathas, was charged with stealing cotton
valued at Rs. 13 belonging to his masters,
Messrs. Ralli Brothers. Burjorji Manekji
Dubash (22) a clerk in Messrs. Volkart Brothers
was charged with aiding and abetting Dinshah
in the offence. Police Inspector Guider con
ducted the prosecution. Mr. N. N. Saber, bar
rister-at-law, defended the first accused; Mr.
Sorabshah B. Kapadia, pleader, defended the
second
Mr. George Llewellyn Sargent, an assistant in
Messrs. Ralli Brothers said that it was the cus
tom of his office to give delivery-notes for cotton
to the employees for the quantity specified in
the note, at a reduced rate, for their domestic
use. Such a note was given to Darashah Man
ekji Umrigar, an employee in Messrs. Ralli
Brothers, on the 5th instant for two maunds of
cotton for his use. In consequence of information
received, the witness went on the 12th instant to
the Police Station where he saw four maunds of
cotton instead of the two that had been ordered.
The first accused was in Messrs. Ralli’s employ.
The second was not.
The evidence of Mr. Umrigar, and of a Ghatti
who had packed up the cotton in bags in the
Jatha was recorded.
The accused pleaded guilty to the charges.
The first accused Engineer said that the extra
two maunds of cotton was to be sold and the
sale proceeds were to be shared between them
both.
The Magistrate: And how much cotton did
you enter-up in your book?
The first accused: Two maunds.
The Magistrate: That is to say you made a
false entry. You entered two maunds instead of
the four maunds you had issued.
Mr. Saher: Had he entered four, it would
have been all right. Then there would have been
no longer any charge against him. It was uluIS
most foolish mistake of entering only two maunds
that has put him in this position.
The second accused in his statement to the
Court said that one Sorabji Shapurji Dalal
brought to him the delivery-note for two maunds.
As he wanted some cotton for himself he spoke
to No. 1. Then No. 1 said he would give him
four maunds on condition that he should pay
him for the extra two maunds. He (the depo
nent, No. 2) got one of the employees to get
him the “pass.” He had advanced Rs. 30 to
No. 1; but as No. 1 could not repay him the
sum, he gave instead his masters’ cotton, which
he (No. 2) accepted.
The Magisrate: . A strange way of repaying
debts with other people’s goods. You recovered
your debt by accepting stolen goods.
Inspector Guider urged that the thefts from
the cotton Jathas were systematic, and he had
great trouble in trapping the accused. He
would ask the Court to deal with them severely.
Mr. Saher urged that the first accused had by
his extremely foolish act lost his 8 or 9 years
good service; he would be dismissed, and he
would not get employment in the future with
out a good character. He appealed to the Mag
istrate to give to the accused the option of a
fine as it was his first offence.
Mr. Kapadia made a similar appeal on behalf
of No. 2.
The Magistrate said , the offence was serious
and must be severely dealt with. Accused, wore
sentenced to one day’s imprisonment and to a
fine of Rs. 150 each. Another charge against
No. 2 of fraudulent possession of stolen cotton
was adjourned for hearing, and the accused was
let out on bail of Rs. 100.
BURIED SPOIL.
The Sukkur police recently received informa
tion that a large quantity, said to be about
8 maunds of brass and copper castings, had
been removed from the vicinity of the railway
workshops and was being sent off by goods train
to the Punjab, the booking, being done from
Rahri station. The works manager, accom
panied by an inspector of police proceeded to
Rohri to seize the consignment, but either the
thieves got wind of the move or by way of pre
caution they got the. stuff sent off by an early
train booked to a station in the Punjab. A wire
was promptly sent by the police to stop the
consignment at Khanpur and return it to Suk
kur. On its arrival it was found to consist of
brass castings. In the meantime the police had
arrested four persons alleged to be implicated
in the removal, purchase and booking of the
brass. The actual thieves have not yet been
arrested. A quantity of spoil was found buried,
near the railway shops, which no doubt would
have been removed later on if the lot now
in the hands of the police had safely got
through. The value of the castings in the con
signment must be about Rs. 500 or Rs. 600.
RELIGIOUS DISTURBANCE.
A serious affray between Mahomedans and
Native Christians is reported from a village in
the Tinnevelly district. The cause of distur-
bance seems to have been due to attempts by
the local Indian Christians to build a church
near a Mahomedan mosque. This was stre
nuously objected to by the Mahomedans and
a disturbance arose in which police had to
lire several shots before the combatants would
be separated. Three persons are reported to
be injured.
DOUBLE MURDER BY A BALUCHI
The adjourned hearing, of the case of double
murder, a tragedy which occurred on the 9th
April at the village of Kharal, near Darya
Khan, the first station from Bhakkar, was re
sumed in the Court of the sub-divisional Magis
trate of Bhakkar. The victims were a Hindu,
aged 17 years, and the wife of the murderer,
aged 16 years. The prisoner, who is a Beluchi,
after committing the murders, reported the cir
cumstance to the Rumbardar of the village and
surrendered himself to the police. At close of
the evidence for the prosecution the prisoner
was asked if he had anything to say in defence.
He replied admitting the crime which he stated
he committed under circumstances of grave pro
vocation in that he saw the deceased commit
ting adultery in a field close to his house. The
Magistrate found that a prima facie case had
been made out against the accused and charg
ing him under Section 302 of the Indian Penal
Code committed him to the Session Court
for trial.
ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES.
A Gazette of India Extraordinary is issued
announcing the resignation by the Hon. Sir
Harvey Adamson of the Membership of Council
of the Governor-General of India from date and
the appointment of the Hon. Mr. J. L. Jenkins
in his place. The Gazette also announced the
taking over charge on Thursday morning by
Sir Harvey Adamson of the office of Lieutenant-
Governor of Burma from Sir Herbert Thirkell
White and the taking over of the Home Mem
bership of India by the Hon. Mr. Jenkins.
A Bombay Government Gazette Extraordinary
issued on Thursday states :—“It is hereby noti
fied that the Hon. Mr. W. T. Morison, C.S.I.,
I.C.S., who has been appointed by His Majesty
the King-Emperor of India, to be a Member of
the Council of the Governor of Bombay, has this
day in the forenoon taken upon himself the
execution of his office.”
ST. JOHN AMBULANCE
The work of the Ambulance Association con
tinues to spread rapidly throughout India.
Madras is now a flourishing centre. New
centres have been started at Sutna and in the
Faridkot state, and work is being started at
Murree and Dalhousie.
The North-Western Oudh and Rohilkhand,
and Eastern Bengal Railways, have now inde
pendent centres supported by railway funds.
The centre for the East-Indian Railway is in
process of formation and it is hoped that
centres for the G. I. P. and B. B. and C. I.
Railwavs will soon come into existence.
Even- from Burma gratifying reports of pro
gress have been received.
THE MONSOON.
A cyclonic hail storm of unparalleled magni
tude passed over Belgaum on Monday morning
and lasted for over an hour, and was followed
by a copious rainfall and a strong wind,
causing damage everywhere. Dilapidated and
rickety houses have collapsed This rain
was due last month. Besides cooling the atmos
phere, these showers are considered to be good
for the crops this season.
Our Trivandrom, correspondent telegraphing
on May 14, says :—Since wiring you particulars
of the terrible storm, we have received informa
tion that a furious cyclone did great havoc in
Cochin and also in South Travancore. In Co-
chin many boats with several peoples were
engulfed. The huts of the poor people living
oii the sea coast have been destroyed. .
In South Travancore the storm raged furi
ously. Several heaps of straw, which had been
collected, were blown off. In one of them a
fox that was comfortably sleeping, was carried
for a long distance high up in the air and then
let fall with the result that it was killed. A
man was caught up into the air and driven by
the strong cyclone for half a mile and then
dropped. He died immediately.
ELTON CUP HOCKEY TOURNAMENT.
The final of the Elton Cup Tournament was
played on the Marine Lines on Saturday after-
noon, before a fairly large attendance. The
Byculla Educational boys were regarded as fav
ourites and in the end secured the cup from the
Eastern Telegraph Club by 3 goals to nil, all
scored in the first half. The Byculla team had
all the better of the attack throughout. At the
close of the tournament, Mr. A. H. S. Aston
handed the cup to the winning team.
The following table shows results:—
1st 2nd Semi-
Round. Bound. Final. Final.
RES School
YMCA
Parsi Pioneers
Rangers
Colaba United
Q 1P Ry Berkely Club.
Rising Star
ETO Juniors
Cathedral High School.
1BE S\
1 4-0 B. E. S,
( 2-0
Bye )
„ 1 Rangers
„ J 1-0
„ 1 G. 1. P.
1 2-1
., 1E. T. C.
„ J 3—2
56