With the Persian Expedition

by Martin Henry Donohoe

And now the tribesmen got their lesson. The car stood on the roadside while Lieutenant Pierpont and his men were preparing breakfast. Approaching to within eight hundred yards, the raiders opened out, and charged to the accompaniment of wild yells. Then the machine-gun in the turret of the immobile car spoke up in reply. It sprayed the charging horsemen with lead; they broke and fled; but, reforming, came on anew. The gun spat more leaden hail, and this time the tribesmen had had enough; they fled in disorder, and ever afterwards gave a very wide berth to all such devilish contrivances as armoured cars and machine-guns.

The Turks now grew seriously alarmed at our temerity in threatening to snatch Tabriz from their impending grasp. It was the door to the Caucasus and to one of the Turkish main theatres of military operations. It was a prize worth having, and for the Turks the possession of the capital of Azerbaijan was of scarcely less vital importance than it was for the British themselves. Kuchik Khan had already effectively barred the gate to Resht and shut us off from the Caspian on the east; now the Turk was completing the "bottling-up" process, for he was closing the door of Tabriz in our face and getting in the way of our reaching Tiflis in the north.

ROAD NEAR RUDBAR. THE TWO LARGE ROCKS IN THE FOREGROUND
REPRESENT ONE ATTEMPT OF THE JUNGALIES TO BLOCK THE ROAD.

During the first week in June the Turks bestirred themselves and began their campaign of close and active co-operation with Kuchik Khan. Turkish troops hurriedly moved on Tabriz from the neighbourhood of Khoi and the direction of Julfa. Ali Elizan Pasha, who designated himself "Commander of the Ottoman Army in the province of Azerbaijan," issued a flamboyant proclamation addressed to his dear Persian brethren and co-religionists asking them to rally to his standard and to make common cause with his Army of Liberation which was pledged to free Persia from the thraldom of the Infidel. So the Turks moved in, and were welcomed by the Persian officials and by the Valiahd or heir-presumptive with manifestations of joy, and the Entente consuls and citizens of the Entente countries moved out as fast as slow-moving Persian transport could carry them.

Once in Tabriz, the Turks did not let the grass grow under their feet. They were bent on giving us a Roland for our Oliver. They assiduously cultivated the good graces of the local Persian Democrats, actively identified themselves with the Ittahad-i-Islam, or Pan-Islamic movement, and set about the recruiting and training of local levies with which to harry us in Azerbaijan. The Turks also formally notified the Teheran Government that it was their intention to extend their occupation to the Persian capital, so as to complete the spiritual and political resurrection of the Shah's Empire.

Mahmud Mukhtar Pasha, a Turkish military leader of some renown, entered Tabriz on June 15th, gave his blessing to the Pan-Islamic propagandist movement, and promised the militants amongst the Democrats that there would soon be no British left in Azerbaijan or elsewhere in Persia to trouble the peace of mind of those patriots. The good work was furthered by such zealous Democrats and Turkophiles as Hadji Bilouri, Mirza Ismael Noberi, and the Sheikh Mehamet Biabari, who contrived to combine piety with politics for a cash consideration.

The Turks, while lavish with oratory, were niggardly with money. In short, they were bad paymasters, happily for the British; otherwise the latter would not have been in Azerbaijan as long as they were. They enrolled fedais or native levies, but forgot to pay them, whereupon the levies deserted and took service with the British down Mianeh way, arguing, logically enough, if crudely, that Turkish promises would not buy bread, and that the money of the Infidel was better than none at all.

The Turks, too, by their rapacity early estranged popular feeling. They commandeered right and left without payment, and in the bazaar, at the point of the pistol, they compelled merchants and money-changers to accept their depreciated paper currency at an inflated rate of exchange as against Persian krans.