A LAND OF CHAOS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1012, 30 December 1910, Page 5

A LAND OF CHAOS.

\- The present .condition of Southern Per-'. ,sia is . without a parallel in any civilised country to-day, so wrote "The Times" in a recent article. "At the best," it ontinned, "the lack of develrpment and of means of communication. in the southern provinces lias long been deplorable. There are railways- and no metalled ■ roads. Trade in. normal, times passes along mule tracks which are often perilous and tome- ' times, imperceptible. , The routes from Bushire to Shiraz, and from Bander Abbas to.Kerman and Bamy wciild make all but the hardiest travellers quail. Nevera lucrative' nnd- : growing trade found its way along these .uninviting ■paths when Persia was. wore peaceful; and it was a trade in' which Great Britain enjoyed a large preponderance. Owing to the chaos now prevailing, trade in .the south has been almost, entirely destroyed. The trade, routes are held :by . bands of roving freebooters. ; The city of Shiraz is the theatro of a fierce rivalry between two forces of wild tribesmen, the Balclitiaris smd the Kasligais. On tho coast the ■ Tnngistanis'are pernetually menacing the irtirt of Bushire. . No man's life is. safe. Harmless travellers become tho prey of bandits. Even British consular and military officers, travelling with small oscorts of Indian troops, have been repeatedly attacked. For more than two'years Southern Persia has been given over to absolute auarchy. Protest.? are vain, and the Government seems to be Teduced to impotence. It does not appear to have the strength, and possibly hardly the desire, to purge the Alsatia of the South.. Ministers are immersed in intripies at the capital, and uro apparently content to lenvo the provinces to their fate. For all administrative purposes the Persian Government has almost ceased to exist south of .Tsirah,v>, and it shows no sign of regaining control. "Great Britain has endured the gradual ■ruin of her trade in Southern Persia with unexampled restraint. She has watched her extensive commercial interests on tho Persian littoral dwindle and decay without any active attempt to arrest tho process. 'There is, however, a. limit even to British and while we are glad that' Sir Edward Grey has at last addressed a stern warning to Persia, wo think that limit was reached long ago. We cannot afford to contemplate, year after year, in close proximity to our Indian Empire, a great area, wherein our trade used to be paramount, lapsing into brigandage and rapine. We cannot see our nationals robbed; our officers attacked, and our commerce shut out without any redress.: If the Persian Government is unable to restore order we. must-do so ourselves, and we must police the trade routes until a strong and stable Administration is once more established in Teheran."