مجموعة ١٣٠/٢٨ " بلاد فارس. الشؤون القبلية والسياسة الموصى بها." [و‎‎١‎٣] (١٩٠/٢٥)

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where the Iraqi Government, with admirable loyalty, have interned
him sc that he may do no further harm;
6* 'The tale of the tribes cf Xhuzistan, the lcw-lyin£
part of Persia along the- left bank cf the Shatt al iirab, is shorte-.
Here such turbulence as there has been has found a vent mainly in
•Mutual raiding and in robbery of the Allied duja^s wtt-e*rlal
c-he Allied bases* The Persian military authorities began a proces-
cf gradual disarmament of the tribes in that region in 1942 a:
have continued it recently, and in the course of this they are saic 1
to have collected several thousands of rifles; The British
authorities have made no-objection to the collection of arms in to -
area where they have essential military interests, though they arc
hoping that hard on the heels cf the Persian Army there will follow
good doctors and school-masters and civil officials, so that the
Arabs may see that the Government of Tehran does not represent
repression alone.
7. It was the Pars area which presented the greatest problem
On one side there was sufficient disorder, early in 1942, to
necessitate the despatch cf a battalion of British troops to Gach
Saran, where one of the most important of the oil wells is situated
On the ether there were rdm^urs of an understanding between seme
Bakhtiari chiefs, the Qashgai and the Boir Ahmedi tribes - rumours
which point was given by the presence of two Germans with the
tribes and of a third, Mayr, moving about in disguise between Tehrc
and Isfahan. This was the year, it will be remembered, when the
Germans reached Ordzhonikidze in the Caucasus and penetrated with!'
60 miles of Alexandria; but apart from the danger of a movement
against the Allies inside the country in concert with the German
advance from outside, there was the risk of attack on the convoys
of lorries which were assembled by the United Kingdom Commercial
Corporation at Bus hi re and driven up to Tehran for delivery to the
Soviet authorities. The Persian nrmy was not yet in a position tc
assert its authority, and an attempt with inadequate forces to
disarm the Qashgai during their migration to their winter quarters
ended with the disarmament cf a Persian detachment. In the even:
delivery of lorries to the Russians in Tehran proceeded with relat.n
few incidents, though it cannot be said to what extent this should
be attributed tc the fact that the convoys were well protected or
the defeat of the ^xis at Stalingrad and Alamein and the efforts cf
the British authorities to make the tribes, particularly the Qashga:
understand that the Germans would lose the war. The tribes
continued to look askance at their own Government and in the summer
of 1943 they defeated a considerable Persian garrison at Semirum
and captured all its arms and equipment* The Persian Government
after a vague attempt to use Qawam ul MuIk, whose family had for
generations wielded considerable influence in Pars, as a counterwei‘
through his influence with tribes and tribal sections^ who had no
wish tc c me under the influence of Nasir Qashgai, embarked on
policy cf conciliation. While this perhaps satisfied the immediac
aims of the Persian Government, it was insufficient from the point
of view cf Allied war aims which were threatened by German influenc
among the tribes as represented net only by the Germans who had bee:
for sane time in tribal country but by two aircraft loads of German;
who were later dropped by parachute. In the end the British
authorities were obliged to enter into direct negotiation with
Nasir Qashgai, who handed ever the Germans in his territory in
exchange for a letter of indemnity. This letter wiped out anything
he might have d^ne against British interests in the past. It Ud
not cover his relations with his own Government which are of course
a matter for direct settlement with the Government, In this he was
fortunate, for had the Persian Government possessed the necessary
authority in tribal country, he would have been arrested like many
other Persians accused cf conspiring with or on behalf of the
Germans, and interned.
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