The Cotton Spies

by Simon Glyndwr John

CHAPTER 4

  Edrich sat in his office doing one of the jobs he detested - reading the weekly Shushtar trade statistics produced by Roy. As he studied: the total number of caravans that had entered and left Shushtar; what they had carried: the number of camels and horses that each caravan had contained his mind began to wander. Depression set in triggered not only by the thought of his intended demise, but also where it might occur and when.

  Sixteen years a soldier and a political officer in India had taught him that death was a hazard of the jobs so that was not his problem. What brought him low was that he had never been married and death here in Persia now would ensure he never would be and he’d have no heirs. Daisy Hullah from his home village was whom he thought he’d marry because the warmth of their correspondence over a six-year period seemed to indicate this. Daisy however had married a banker whilst he had been at Gallipoli. Edrich tried to recall her face, voice, the way she moved and spoke but nothing came to him. He had met no one else that he had liked so much since then not even one of the nurses who had attended his wounds.

  Actually that was not true for when he was wounded a second time whilst in France he had liked Nurse Greaves. He smiled ironically to himself because he had never known her first name. He wondered if he had taken her fancy. Then he decided probably not because nurses had so much choice thanks to the number of casualties generated by the Western Front or indeed all Fronts. Then no sooner had he recovered from his wound then he was out to India and the North West Frontier where there were no women; well not ones he could marry.

  A great feeling of being alone swept through him despite the fact within the building there were twenty or thirty people he could talk to at this very moment. Sure he could talk to a Persian clerk or an Indian trooper but what would they have in common? Loneliness to him meant that there was no one to talk to in English about the really important things like the latest novels, English politics, cricket, painting, and the impact of motor transport on the horse trade or the gossip about Edward VII and his mistresses. On reflection with a giggle he realised that Edward had been dead for the past eight years so nothing worthwhile had happened recently on that subject. He stared into the middle distance his thoughts switched nostalgically of home. It would be spring there or it soon would be. Edrich decided he’d love to look out of his bedroom window at his mother’s house in England and see her daffodils and primroses; the birds would be nesting and making a racket early in the morning – the sole purpose being to waken him up.

  Finally his thoughts switched to this his latest lonely posting in a fly blown Persian town without another European in it and where the summer was so hot the locals lived beneath the ground. And all he was doing, he looked at the paper in front of him, was counting bloody camels and bloody horses with the occasional bit of bloody propaganda work in bloody Shushtar. What a bloody life. A pounding on his office door rudely shattered his melancholy.

  ‘Sarder Sabahi and Houshang Azari are here to see you, Major Edrich,’ announced Roy. ‘I have put them in the usual room and said you would be delayed for a few minutes.’

  ‘Good. You did not say anything about my feud?

  ‘No.’

  ‘Well maybe they’ll volunteer something and give us a clue about any support that the Lurs have in the town.’ Edrich selected two pencils checked them for sharpness. He looked at Roy who smiled at him and lifted up first a sheaf of paper and two pencils in his right hand and in his left hand a lamp. Edrich nodded with his head towards a door and Roy lit the lamp.

  The two men left the room silently opening and closing the door that was situated behind and to the left of Edrich’s desk. The room into which the two men entered was little more than a large cupboard having neither window nor door other than the one the men had just used. They sat down on the two stools adjacent to the walls, Roy turned up the lamp and then each man put on a set of earphones. The earphones had a cord whose ends were attached to the wall. As the pair listened they scribbled notes, Roy almost continually, Edrich only from time to time. They sat in the cupboard for half an hour or so before Edrich pulled his watch from his tunic pocket and looked at the time before he showed it to Roy. Edrich removed his headphones and got up Roy did the same as soon as he had finished writing. The men left the room as silently as they had entered it.

  ‘So they appear to know about the plot to kill you, but not where the assassins are at the moment,’ Roy whispered as they walked through Edrich’s office.

  ‘It would seem so. As men with opposing views we know they don’t trust one another. They didn’t appear to say anything of value, did they?’ When Roy shook his head in reply Edrich continued, ‘still write your notes up when we have finished so I can see if I missed anything. I feel my Persian sorry – Farsi - is getting better but it is still inadequate. Wheel them in otherwise they might wonder what we're doing.’

  Sarder Sabahi was the editor of the local paper ‘Truth’ and was supportive of Britain and British interests. A major reason for Sabahi’s support for the British was the subsidy of 500 tomans a month they paid him. Edrich made the payments on the last Friday of each month, in the tiny room close to the Residency’s back door which was rarely used except by those seeking to enter or leave the building surreptitiously.

  Houshang Azari editor of the Shushtar ‘Freedom Today’ newspaper did not receive a British subsidy because he was a supporter of the Persian Democrat party who had been trying since the war began to oust the Russians and British from Persia. Azari might have actively supported the Germans provided they had soldiers close at hand rather than in far off Ukraine. On the other hand he would never have supported Persia’s enemies the Turks. So if ever German and Turkish troops were to arrive in Persia together Azari would be in a dilemma.

  Edrich like his predecessors conveyed the news about the war when the newspapermen were together, thereby hoping that Azari would not realise the duplicity of Sabahi. The source for the news of the Allied war effort was the ‘Mesopotamia Times’ a veritable bible of information produced on a weekly basis in Baghdad and forwarded to all political officers who were administering territory under British control whether it be in Mesopotamia or Persia. Europeans produced the Mesopotamia Times for Europeans and as such Edrich found he had to edit the news for local consumption. The current issue he had received dealt with the big German Offensive in France in which the British and Empire troops had suffered a near defeat.

  Edrich had to gauge how much the two Persians opposite him had learned from other sources and how he could put the retreat in terms that they both understood. He had to be careful not to exaggerate too much and to avoid lying. Anti British Persians based in Teheran, had access to German sources of information that they ensured was forwarded to every town that published a newspaper.

  ‘There has been a big battle in France between the Germans and us.’ Edrich cleared his throat, ‘the Germans who have benefited by the withdrawal of Russia from the war have been able to send two hundred thousand more men to fight us. The Germans know that to win the war they must beat the British, not the French, the British. They attacked one of our armies and so we have withdrawn a distance of say,’ he hesitated, ‘the equivalent of half a day camel’s ride from Shushtar.’

  ‘That is a long way,’ said Azari.

  ‘Only if you have a racing camel and ride fast,’ replied Edrich without a moment’s hesitation.

  ‘Are you saying that the Germans inflicted a defeat upon you?’

  Edrich had known of course that this question would arise from Azari. He had his answer already but decided to let silence rule for a moment. ‘A defeat no, a forced withdrawal, yes.’ Edrich saw both men looking puzzled he went on, ‘what happened gentlemen is this.’ He took up his pencil and drew on a sheet of paper a half oval then he wrote the word British inside it and German round the outside of the oval. Edrich turned the piece of paper round so that both men could see. Using his pencil as a pointer, ‘as you both will remember for a year and a half
we British have been driving the Germans back however, the French here,’ he drew a straight line at the bottom of the half oval, ‘and the Belgians here,’ he drew a straight line on the other side of the oval, ‘have not been as successful. This has left us with the danger of being surrounded. The Germans have attempted to surround us and to prevent that we have retreated to new strongholds and have thus straightened our line. Doing that means we no longer have enemies on three sides.’

  ‘So the British have not suffered a Cannae, have they Major Edrich?’ Sabahi said referring to the famous Carthaginian defeat of the Romans nearly two thousand years previously.

  ‘Absolutely not, if we stayed in this bulge, caused by the French and Belgians, we would have.’ Edrich tapped his diagram forcefully with the pencil leaving an indentation in the paper.

  ‘I have heard that you have lost many guns, men and equipment,’ said Azari watching Edrich closely.

  ‘Yes, we have,’ said Edrich. ‘We have lost as many guns as there are stalls in the Market Place, as many soldiers as there are citizens here in Shushtar.’ He paused and looked directly at Azari and leaning forward said almost whispering. ‘The Germans though have lost twice as many soldiers as there are citizens in Shushtar.’

  ‘How do you know that?’ asked Sabahi looking genuinely puzzled.

  ‘It is a known fact that if you are the attacking army you lose twice as many soldiers as the defending army,’ Edrich’s voice rumbled with authority.

  ‘But, Major Edrich,’ said Azari deliberately, ‘we have been told in the past by you and your predecessors that the British kept attacking the Germans because that was the only way to defeat them. It was said that by continually attacking the Germans what you call morale in the British army would be high and it was this morale that would see you defeat the Germans. Do you now say that as the Germans are attacking their morale is now higher than yours, and therefore they will win the war?’

  Edrich pretended not to understand Azari’s question and so he asked Roy to translate for him. Edrich remained impassive whilst this happened for his pretence gave him time to think more clearly. When Roy had finished Edrich spoke slowly and carefully.

  ‘Mr Azari, you would and I stress, would, have a point except for one thing - the blockade of Germany by our ships. This stops food and other materials like oil, of which Germany does not have enough, reaching her. This blockade of all goods will result in starvation and no soldier can fight on an empty stomach. What the Germans are doing is, and I am in no doubt about it, gambling on a last desperate effort to win before the Americans arrive. The Americans have more people than in a locust swarm and you know how damaging locusts are.’ Edrich paused before adding, ‘the Germans will be like flies caught in a web with the spider crawling towards them and you know what happens then, Buzz,’ Edrich shook his head, shoulders and body in a parody of a dying fly but nobody laughed.

  Sabahi took the opportunity to change the subject by asking Edrich about the possibility of a Lur threat to the town. Edrich wondered whether this was Sabahi’s way of getting him to warn off the Lurs via Azari.

  ‘I think not,’ said Edrich shaking his head as if amazed by the thought, ‘cavalry are now able to get to Shushtar in eight hours or less because the road to Dizful has been improved since last year’s problems. The number of motor lorries being used by the British Army is increasing at the rate rabbits multiply. Motor vehicles travel like hawks and are faster than horses so in three hours they’d be here.’

  Houshang nodded and for once looked impressed. Edrich wondered if they had even one lorry at Dizful. Edrich then asked the two editors what news they would be publishing in their papers and whether they would be using the information he provided to them. Sabahi spoke a lot without saying anything; Houshang on the other hand made it clear he was sceptical of what Edrich had told them and that he would be publishing the local views on the impact of Russia’s withdrawal from the north of the country. Neither editor mentioned any potential troubles from the local tribes.

  After the two Persians had left the Residency and Edrich was on his own he went to where Sabahi had been sitting put his hand down the back of the chair and retrieved three pieces of paper each densely covered in Farsi script.

  Edrich took them off to his desk where he sat with his Anglo Persian dictionary and translated Sabahi’s report into English.

  The following report is based on communications I have received from Teheran.

  It has been reported that the Bolshevik government have recently sent an envoy, Karl Bravin, to the Persian Government. This envoy brought a message from Lenin suggesting that discussions between the two governments should take place to set up good neighbourly relations. In addition Lenin invited the Persian Government to join in the fight ‘against the most rapacious imperialist government on earth, England, whose intrigue has disturbed the peace of Persia and is destroying this great country.

  Currently the Persian Prime Minister, Samsun us-Saltana and his Foreign Minister Vasuq ud-Daula, and the Persian Cabinet have not reacted to this invitation. Discussions within the cabinet apparently show that the Persian Government is not yet convinced that the Bolsheviks are fully established as the Government of Russia. There is also the added complication that the Russian Imperial Government still has representatives in Teheran. The government will make no decision as to whom it will sign official agreements with until the eventual winner in the Russian civil war emerges.

  Kuchik Khan’s Jangalis continue to block the Hamadan Enzeli road to General Muncerville’s column of British troops, on its route to the Caspian. Also the refusal of this tribe to acknowledge the current Persian Government means that the latter is looking to General Muncerville and to the Imperial Cossack General Baratov to provide a military solution. The Cossacks however are currently withdrawing back to Russia and it is not clear whether they will support an operation against the Jangalis.

  The Persian Government needs the Jangalis to be brought under control for their own prestige and standing in Teheran. There is a worry that the Shah will use the excuse of the arrival of Bravin and the Jangalis current military success to replace Samsun us-Saltana Government with a Prime Minister and government from the Democratic Party. A successful advance of the Turks and Germans to the Caspian will be the lynch pin in the Shah’s decision to replace Saltana.

  A threat has been made against the life of the British Political Office in Shushtar, Major Edrich. This threat is both a response to the hanging of the Lur rebels in Shushtar last year and a reaction to the current difficulties the British are having in North West Persia. It is felt that the murder will not be attempted until orders are received from Teheran. There is a problem for the Lurs in that many of their tribesmen are working on the oil pipeline and are vulnerable to a possible British retaliation.‘

  Edrich put his pen down and thought about the last sentence of the report. On the one hand he was pleased that people in Teheran had to approve of his murder and they were wary people. On the other hand all tribesmen in Persia were notoriously independent of Teheran and liked to make their own policy. Edrich wondered if the money being earned by the Lurs on the pipeline could persuade the tribe’s chiefs to stay their hand for the moment at least – he hoped so. Edrich was pleased what Sabahi had put in that last paragraph because at headquarters in Basra, on the Persian Gulf, when they read that his life was in danger they surely would send him more troops. On reflection he doubted if there were any spare troops to help him. As to the information about the shenanigans up in North Persia, Edrich was sure Basra would be receiving that from its other sources.

  Once Edrich had completed his translation and reworked it into good English he used his code-book to encrypt the report. The encryption complete he got Roy to take the report to the local telegraph office for transmission to Basra. Once Roy had left Edrich returned unwillingly to the Shushtar caravan statistics. Unable to concentrate he abandoned his reading and then his office. Once in his quarters he began a n
ew painting of the Hampshire Downs based on a photograph for its composition but on his memory for colour. As he painted the threat of his own murder moved from the front to the back of his mind.