"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية: العمليات في بلاد فارس ١٩١٤-١٩١٩" [و‎‎١‎٦‎٦] (٥٦٦/٣٣٦)

BRITISH TROOPS AT HAMADAN
289
the desire for opposition to the British action was by no means
universal; and this was further confirmed when the Shah sent
word to the British Minister that he was prepared to dismiss
the Cabinet and appoint a new one under Ain-ud-Daula. Sir
Charles Marling considered, however, that such a Cabinet was
unlikely to be very different in complexion to the existing one,
whose imminent fall appeared to be responsible for the
extremists' efforts to induce a Jangali coup, first at Kazvin and
then at Tehran.
On the 18th March the Jangalis arrested Captain Noel of
the Indian Political Department, who had just returned to
Enzeli from a mission to Trans-Caucasia on which Sir Charles
Marling had sent him. But the British Minister had reliable
information that the Jangalis were not disposed to commit
themselves to an advance southwards until the Turkish troops
whose assistance they had been promised had actually arrived
on the scene. Moreover, they had recently quarrelled with and
been worsted by the Shah Sawan tribe, who inhabited the
area east of Tabriz ; and the financial crisis brought about by
their arrest of the British bank manager at Resht had caused
serious trouble between them and the Bolsheviks.
The Persian Government's attitude was further explained by
information from a reliable source that neither they nor the
Shah believed that we were in earnest about sending troops
from Mesopotamia.
In the last week of March the Jangali menace to Kazvin
was dispelled by the arrival there of Bicharakoff's detachment.
At the same time a small advanced party of the l/4th Hampshire
Regiment from Mesopotamia reached Hamadan, where anti-
British sentiment had decreased owing to the tactful and con
ciliatory methods of General Dunsterville and to the initiation
by him of famine relief measures.
By the beginning of April, information from various sources British
made it clear that the Turks were actively working for the
formation under Turkish control of the new Moslem state, which
should include not only Russian and Persian Azerbaijan but
also part of Gilan. Enver's brother, Nuri, was on his way to
Tabriz to organise a Moslem army, another Turkish notable
had been sent to Urmia to invoke Kurdish assistance, and the
Tartars were clearly ready to help the Turks. Turkish agents
were negotiating with the Persian extremists and the Jangalis,
but, finding that they objected strongly to any cession of Persian
territory, were concealing their real aims under the guise of
an intention to resist British attempts to intervene in Persia