"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية: العمليات في بلاد فارس ١٩١٤-١٩١٩" [و‎‎١‎١‎٩] (٥٦٦/٢٤٢)

ENEMY PRISONERS ESCAPE
203
left Bandar Abbas with a large convoy for Kerman; and on
the 8th and 10th orders were sent from India, in view of the
reports received of the unrest in Kerman province, to despatch
a further eighty rifles from Muscat to Bandar Abbas, whence
forty of them were to proceed to Baft. Here all three parties
were to concentrate and, after withdrawing the prisoners from
Saidabad, the eighty odd rifles from Muscat were to escort them
back to Bandar Abbas. All concerned were warned of the
importance of not allowing the prisoners to escape.
Before these movements were completed, however, the
situation in the Kerman province deteriorated so greatly that
Major Farran was obliged, with the concurrence of Sir Percy
Sykes, to cease work on the organisation of the South Persia
Rifles and to concentrate upon raising tribal levies for immediate
service and upon other precautionary arrangements to render
his position secure. At Saidabad the state of unrest was so
marked that, after trying unsuccessfully to get the prisoners
sent to Baft, Major Farran on the 19th August sent Captain
J. N. Merrill* with nine of the South Persia Rifles and twenty
Persian horsemen to Saidabad to carry this out. On his
arrival at Saidabad, however, most of the prisoners and their
Persian escort fled. The prisoners had been allowed to mix
freely with the populace, who had become so affected by the
exaggerated reports of the Turkish successes that Captain
Merrill could obtain no assistance locally to enable him to pursue
the prisoners. In fact, he found his own position to be difficult
and somewhat dangerous. Nevertheless, he managed to raise
some levies locally.
News of the prisoners’ escape reached Lieutenant Fraser on
the 25th and Major Farran on the 27th August. On the latter
date Lieutenant Fraser’s party was at Baft, which it had
reached the previous day ; forty-two rifles of the 108th Infantry
were at Daulatabad ; and the third party (under Captain L. C.
Wagstaff) was due there on or about the 29th. Major Farran
at once sent instructions down the road that the three parties
were to concentrate at Baft, ready to move on Saidabad if
necessary. But, though preparations for its erection had
started, there was as yet no telegraph line along the road and
messages took some time to reach their destination. So that some
days before receiving Major Farran’s order, Lieutenant Fraser
had already come to the conclusion that the sooner he
got to Kerman—with his large convoy of some 600 camels
* An American, formerly employed with the gendarmerie, who had been
engaged in Persia to serve with the South Persia Rifles.