"تقارير إدارية ١٩٠٥-١٩١٠" [ظ‎‎١‎٢‎٧] (٦١٦/٢٥٩)

jgsst ■
and
i
hi
Imperial Bank
of Persia.
Weather and
Crops.
on.
02 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OF THE PERSIAN GULF POLITICAL RESIDENCY)
At the end of the Persian year there were the following troopi
material at Khanikin :—
2 battalions of Infantry, each 500 strong.
1 battalion forming from the Hedif.
1 regiment of cavalry variously given as being 150—-500 strong.
100 M. I, mounted on mules.
3 guns with 45 artillerymen and 28 horses.
80 mule loads and 50 camel loads of military stores and ammunit
The Turks claim the districts of Zohab and Saumar.
Regarding Zohab Sir Henry Rawlinson says " It formed one of the 11
Pashaliks dependent upon Baghdad until about sixty years ago (i .e., beginning
of 19th century) when Mahommed Ali Mirza, Prince of Kermanshah, annexed
it to the crown of Persia. By the treaty concluded between Persia and the
Porte in 1823 it was stipulated that the districts acquired by either party
during the war should be respectively surrendered and that the ancient frontier
line should be restored which had been established in the time of the Satfavi
monarchs. According to a subsequent, treaty Zohab ought certainly to have
been given up to the Turkish authorities, but neither had the Persians the will
to render this act of justice nor had the Pasha of Baghdad the power to
enforce it and Zohab has thus remained to the present day in the possession of
the Government of Kermanshah.
It is commonly stated in Kermanshah that the father of the present "Wall
of Pusht-i-Kuh acquired the district of Saumar by conquest from the Turks.
The Turkish Consul-Genera] remarked to me one day that if a man has
property of yours and you are strong enough to take it Irom him il: he will not
give it up you naturally take it by force.
Having regard to the preparations made, especially in ammunition and
material, it would seem the natural course of events that the Turks should
await till the question of these two provinces comes before the Frontier Com
mission and then, should there be any dispute about the matter, that they should
insist by force on what they consider to be their rights.
I have, throughout the year, been employed with the affairs of the
Imperials Bank of Persia, which still continues in a most unfortunate state
owing to jthe defalcations of Mirza Ismail Khan Pakir, formerly the book
keeper of the Bank. It appears that blank signed cheques were left in the
hands of the book-keeper who did ali the work and was virtually manager of
the Bank, since his signature was sufficient for loans, etc. The natural
consequence was that being without supervision he took advantage of the
unfortunate trust placed in him, indeed what else could be expected of a
Persian. Ismail Khan needed capital for his own adventures and took it from
the Bank under the form of loans to various persons. He also gave loans to all
and sundry taking as security property, which is against the charter of the
Bank, consequently most of the loans are unsecured. What is still more
unfortunate is that he had large numbers of private transactions and both Bank
and private transactions are made out in the name of s< Ismail Khan Bakir
, Mudir-i-Bank. ,, The resulting confusion can be imagined and, although the
Bank books show which transactions belong to the Bank, it can be understood
that the Persian debtor attempt to deny that he owes money to the Bank at all
or brings up receipts which concerned private matters and attempts to set them
off against Bank claims. The situation is then at best a complicated one : add
to this the fact that throughout the year Governments have changed with a
kaleidoscopic rapidity and it will be ssen that the recovery of money by force
from a recalcitrant debtor was practically a matter of impossibility.
Since the beginning of the year under report, however, we have succeeded
in getting in a good many payments and matters have assumed a more hopeful
form, though there is still much to recover.
The year has been an exceptionally dry one, the total rain falling amount
ing to 18*03 inches. On one day, only, did snow worth mentioning fall with
the result that what are usually rushing streams until the month oi June are