"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية: العمليات في بلاد فارس ١٩١٤-١٩١٩" [و‎‎٢‎٤‎٤] (٥٦٦/٤٩٤)

T RAN S-C ASPIA
431
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to General Marshall to reinforce General Malleson immediately ;
and orders were consequently issued for two companies of the
Warwicks to return at once from Baku to Krasnovodsk, whence
General Malleson was authorised to despatch up to three
companies to Askabad. A report from General Malleson of
the 30th November showed that apprehensions felt in India
regarding the security of the Merv front, owing to the reported
Turkoman intrigues, were groundless, as the difficulties of the
Tashkend Bolsheviks were too great to enable them to attack
effectively ; but that the grave danger of local disturbances at
Askabad had obliged him to order there immediately the
squadron and company from Meshed. He also said that he
was issuing local bills to repay the Trans-Caspian Government
five million roubles, which was approximately what he estimated
was due to them for rations supplied * On the 1st December he
reported that, as a result of a week's hard endeavour, he hoped
he had saved the local Government for the time being ; while
other telegrams sent that day, by Sir Percy Cox at Tehran
holding out hopes of the Imperial Bank there being able to buy
ten million roubles and by General Marshall reporting that
General Thomson had been able to send two million roubles
from Baku to Askabad, promised to relieve temporarily the
financial stringency. The chance of local disturbances at
Askabad was also removed by the arrival there of two companies
of Warwicks on the 3rd and 4th December and by the impending
arrival of the squadron 28th Light Cavalry from Meshed.
On the 2nd December General Malleson expressed his inability Trans-^
to suggest what amount beyond the five million roubles for ^emb
rations should be given the Trans-Caspian Government, owing i 9I 8.
to the important questions of higher policy involved. He read
H.M. Government's declaration of their desire to keep Bolshe
vism out of the region to the east of the Black Sea as intended
to include Turkestan, but apparently the Government of India
thought otherwise ; and he consequently asked for an authori
tative decision. He pointed out that the Trans-Caspian troops
were unable to stand alone and then went on, after discussing
the alternative policies before us, to urge a precise indication of
British policy for the immediate future. No satisfactory
results, he concluded, were likely to accrue from half measures
and we should either see the business through or withdraw.
The Government of India accordingly asked the India Office on
the 5th December whether Turkestan was in cluded in the
* He could not get a figure from the Trans-Caspian Government, but they
accepted his estimate.