THE BRITISH IN PERSIA During the winter, the position in Mesopotamia entirely changed. Instead of weak, ill-equipped columns, severely handi capped by unfavourable climate conditions, failing before Kut al 'Amara, there was the pleasant picture of overwhelming forces under the inspiring leadership of Gen. Sir Stanley Maude re capturing Kut in February 1917 and following this up by the signal success of the capture of Baghdad. The position of the Turks in Persia became more and more difficult as the British advanced. On the day Baghdad was occupied they evacuated Kermanshah and, pursued by the Russians, reached the Persian frontier at Qasr-i-Shirin on March 31, worn out and hungry but not wholly demoralised. But during the succeeding winter, the Russian army disintegrated. Its collapse opened up to the enemy a completed line of northern advance across the Caucasus and the Caspian sea to `Ashqabad, Mery (the junction for Kushk, within striking distance of Herat), Bokhara, Samarcand and Tashkent, the administrative centre of Russian Turkistan. In Sept. 1917 Georgia and Armenia decided to claim their independence, and a third state came into being under the title of the republic of Azerbaijan, with Baku as its capital. In connection with the efforts made to ward off the danger to India involved in the Rus sian collapse, British troops entered Western Persia.
The Dunsterville Mission.—It was out of the question to despatch large bodies of troops to support the Georgians or Ar menians, as Baghdad was Boom. distant from Baku. The authori ties therefore, decided to despatch a military mission to reorganise the sound elements of the country into a force that would pre vent the Turks and their German masters from reaching Baku. It was hoped that these small States would fight for their homes, but the Armenians failed to do this. Maj.-Gen. L. C. Dunsterville was appointed to command this mission, and, in Feb. 1918, he started off from Baghdad with a party of officers in 4o cars to cross north-west Persia. Enzeli was his objective, and he hoped from that port to be able to proceed to Baku and Tiflis. He reached Enzeli only to find that the port and its shipping were in the hands of hostile Bolsheviks, while the neighbourhood was dominated by Mirza Kuchik Khan, an ambitious brigand who had recruited some 4,00o followers, nicknamed Jangalis or "For est Dwellers," to the cry of "Persia for the Persians," and who robbed his countrymen if they refused to join him. Dunsterville
quickly realised the situation, and, before his opponents had con certed their plans and had overcome their fear of the armoured motor-car, the mission had retired to Kazvin and Hamadan, which latter city became its headquarters.
During this period, Dunsterville was brought into close relations with the Russian generals Baratov and Bicherakov. The former had commanded the Russian troops in Northern Persia and was now helplessly watching their disintegration. The latter, on the contrary, had kept his command of 1,200 men practically intact. By March the last of Baratov's men had left, but Dunster ville had been able to keep Bicherakov's command at his side. Without its aid, the Jangalis, elated by the retirement of the mission, which was magnified into a great victory over a British army, would have been able to march on the capital. There they would probably have introduced a reign of anarchy and have forced Persia into the War on the side of the Central Powers, with whom Kuchik Khan had close relations; he also had German, Austrian and Turkish instructors well supplied with machine guns. When the Jangalis marched on Kazvin, Bicherakov fore stalled them, and drove them back to the forests with heavy losses. He then embarked at Enzeli. Dunsterville, who had re ceived reinforcements consisting of a regiment of cavalry, a battery and two regiments of infantry, followed behind Bichera kov and took over the road. The Jangalis, under their European officers, attacked a detachment at Resht, but suffered heavy losses, and Kuchik Khan made terms and became a contractor for supplies. About this time the Bolshevik Government at Baku was overthrown and replaced by the Central-Caspian dictatorship, which asked for British assistance. Dunsterville took his force to Baku, held it for some weeks against overwhelming Turkish num bers, denying the use of the oil wells to the enemy, whom he also kept away from the Caspian Sea, and finally evacuated the town and returned to Enzeli, thus ending a very gallant episode of the War.