"ملف رقم II/١٢ مذكرات معلومات من إدارة الخارجية بخصوص شؤون بلاد فارس والساحل العربي من الخليج الفارسي. يناير "٠٩ --" [ظ‎‎٢‎٧] (١٧٨/٥٤)

The Maraga forces were repulsed with
heavy loss in an attack which they made on
Tabriz on the 24th February.
On the 3rd March, the Indo-European
telegraph line to Julfa was cut.
Great distress and scarcity has been felt
in Tabriz owing to the roads bein^ closed,
and on the 25th February Mr. Wratislaw was
of the opinion that the town could hold out for
a month unless taken by assault.
(Vide paragraph 1 of the Memo-
1909.) On the 8th
March, His Britannic Majesty’s Consul-General
reported a fresh outbreak of the revolutionary
movement at Meshed. Apparently, on the
evening of the 7th March, the revolutionaries,
led by Russian subjects whom the Russian
Consul-General w r as unable to restrain, seized
the telegraph office and imprisoned the Deputy
Governor. The serious feature of the position
was the absence of all the permanent respon
sible officials—the Commander-in-Chief, the
Karguzar and Governor-General, having all
been dismissed, while the two latter, who were
most influential officials, were leaving the city
without waiting for their relief.
On the 13th March, the city was in the
hands of the new Assembly who were preparing
to raise a strong force. Subsequently street
fighting ensued between the inhabitants of
Meshed and the Russian subjects. The refusal
of the Prussian Consul-General to state in
writing that the latter were not his subjects
or to give the local authorities a free hand with
them, conveyed the impression that he was
awaiting an excuse to summon Russian troops
to the scene.
2. It is reported that the bodies of
Murder of Russian three Russian spies,
spies on the Khorasan said to be an officer
frontier. „ j , .
and two Armenians,
who were killed on the Khorasan frontier,
have lately been found. Major Sykes states
that the whole affair is somewhat mysterious
as the men are termed “ scouts ” in the
Russian newspapers.
3. (Vide paragraph 3 of the Memorandum
The Zil-es-Sultan. -{ 0r February 1909.)
In a despatch, dated the
20th January, to Sir E. Grey, Sir F. Bertie
reported that the Zil had expressed his grati
tude for the protection accorded to his family
at Ispahan, and begged that this protection
might be extended to certain of his servants
whom he mentioned. As regards his family,
the Zil bad asked, early in January, that, in
view of the state of affairs at Ispahan, His
Majesty’s Consul-General should be given fresh
instructions to protect them very carefully.
His Majesty’s Consul-General at Ispahan is
doing all he can in this direction. In regard