Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 311
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[Page 311]
153
unconditional surrender, hostilities ceased on all fronts, and there was a move to create a British post-bellum occupation of North West Persia, under the command of General George Milne, with Indian troops. I received instructions to establish marching-posts for the new incursion, at intervals along the main Kangavar-Hamadan-Kasvin Road in suitable large buildings with enclosed compounds: caravanserais were ideal for this purpose. Our field workshop was enlarged to make a supply of barrack, mess and toilet furniture for installation in the selected buildings. I was so short of supervisory staff that I had to send my trustworthy interpreter Joseph Ismail out to a very isolated caravanserai, located in an area where the road to Kasvin passed through an extensive jungle that was infested by a band of marauding tribesmen, the Jingalis, under a doughty chieftan, Kuchi Khan. Twice during recent months he had stuck up and robbed the Ford vanette that operated the mail service between Hamadan and Kasvin three times a week, compelling Headquarters to use an armoured car for this purpose, but Kuchi Khan and his men promptly immobilised it by digging a wide and deep trench across the road and then peppered it with bullets from the shelter of the trees before disappearing into the dense forest. Joseph had been out there only a few weeks when he asked me to send him out a good rifle and some ammunition, which I did. He mentioned in his letter that he thought he could catch the second-in-command of the Jingalis if he had this weapon.
On my next visit of inspection, a week later, he asked me to show him how the rifle was loaded, aimed and fired. I put an empty four-gallon tin against the rear wall of the compound, about forty yards away, and after some preliminary instruction Joseph assumed the prone position and started shooting: after three very wide shots he finally managed to hit the tin. In the meantime a very fierce looking well armed ruffian had walked in off the road and was watching Joseph's display of poor marksmanship. He stalked arrogantly away as Joseph got up and noticed him. I inquired as to who he was. "Oh", said