BED MENACE IN PERSIA

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 138, 11 June 1920, Page 7

BED MENACE IN PERSIA

COUNTRY AN EASY PREY

BRITISH INTERESTS EN

DANGERED.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPIRIGHT.)

(AUSTRALIAN - HEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

(Received June 11, 11 a.m.)

LONDON, 10th June.

The Times, commenting on the Bolshvik occupation of Resht (on the Caspian Sea), infers that the Beds intend to make a definite move upon Teheran. The email British force in Resht was withdrawn fifty-two miles to a position in the Menjil Pass,'guarding the Teheran road. The other British troops scattered ineffectively over North Persia are probably endangered. The whole position is obscure, owing to the lack of official information ; but there is apparently nothing to prevent Persia falling an easy prey to the Bolsheviks. The Government is weak, and is honeycombed with intrigue. Starosselesky's Cossack Division, quartered at Teheran, is now anti-British, and is deeply tainted with Bolshevism. ' Kutchik Khan, a notorious freebooter, a-nd leader of the Persian revolutionaries, has become the head of a Provisional Government formed in Resht, and will probablj encourage the Red advance, upon Teheran. The British Government has still not defined . its policy regarding Persia, though its interests aye immediately threatened. Simultaneously a, dangerous position is developing in Asia Minor, owing to the increasing co-operation of the Turks and Bolshevists.