"الملف 26/185 V (F 96) شيخ المحمرة" [و‎‎٥‎٨] (٤٧٢/١٢١)

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about tnat period the Chief of ^mnieh appeared in a car,
and we a&ked him where the party was* He seemed quite
ignorant ana asked what we proposed to do. wn learning our
intentions he declared that he himself had already inspected
the place and was convinced we should discover nothing. However
we insisted that we shouid atileast go out with him and the
shaikh *nd so went to the Police station to collect the
latter, ^nere we were told that the -^haikn nad never been to
^horramshahr out only a policeman who had brought his letter.
•»e asked x'or tne policeman ana one was produced who said he
could take us to him, i^nd we set forth, ^t the old tireless
station just outside ^horramshahr a policeman appeared wno was
identified as the man we wanted «nd he conducted us to a
village nameo oara about 2 or 3 miles on. Here we met the
shaikh wno said he had sent the message to the Governor. I
asked if he was the Shaikh of ^riyaz and was then told that
that was a mistake aad it was this shaikh and not the shaikh of
Ariyaz who had written the message. *«e questioned him as to
how he came by this information and a ere told that the Customs
farrash had in his turn learnt it from a taxi-driver named
Hadir. ''e asked what had become of ^adir and were told that
he was in custody in i^horramshahr. This surprised me as it
was this same man wno was said to have reported to Mr. i^ell of
the anglo-Iranian Oil Company, xhe latter had already told me
that ^adir had absconded to Basra. However we returned to
^.horramshahr and went to the Chief of Police, ^nere we asked
if the taxi-driver was in custody ^na were assued he was,
together wltn two others who had brought news from Ahwaz. «•
said we shouin like to see these men if they had no objection
and were told uhat they would be brought at once. In the
interval we went over the events of the night before and
concluded that xiut ^11 the information received wati oased upon
two reports only, une taxi driver from Ahwaz and tne taxi
driver from Basra, am tnat all apparently confirmatory reports
from other sources originated in fact from these. As we were
talking a Calonel in the ^ray entered in a somewhat breathless
otate vhe had presumably been sent for somewhat hurriedly) and
was introduced all round, ^e were told he was in charge of
the frontier and that from now on the ^mnieh were to work
under him. we replied tnat we could not understand this as
we thought the army and amnieh were under totally different
Ministries. The statement was then qualified by saying that
this officer would merely be referred to. M, this stage the
Chief of Police who had been very flustered all through
evidently decided to try to head us off, and to change the
subject, invited us to take tea. 1 declined saying that i
had much to attend to and had only one more question to ask.
I therefore repeated my request to see the taxi-drivers. «*e
were then blandly told that when they said they had the taxi-
drivers they did not mean actually at the station, out that
they were in ^horramshahr '^nd could be found when necessary.
At this point 1 decided to leave and, bidding
farewell somewhat abruptly, Major Jeacock and 1 took our
departure, leaving my ^unshi to inform them of our feelings
at this absurd and disgraceful pantomime of inefficiency abd
deceit and to say that I proposed to ask the Governor for an
explanation.
j-ater that morning 1 succeeded in getting hold o
the/