A MODERN ROBIN HOOD.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13908, 8 November 1919, Page 3

A MODERN ROBIN HOOD.

Of the highwaymen who nmde il- llicir business to invade Now York tail's and cigar shops and resiamants. holdly to roh the passengers in trolly oars and to hold ii|t bank messengers, il cannot he said they are chivalrous or lii,gh-minded (says the "New York Herald"). They are low, selfish creatures, making no question ;is to tile worldly possessions of their victims. They betray no world vision. None of them is interesting; all are merely violo.it and lawless. Against their exhibition of heartless cupidity put the conduct of certain eminent citizens of Persia, recorded by Lieu-tenant-colonel G. S. F. Napier, lately British Military Attache at Teheran, in the ".Journal" of tho Royal Geographical Society ;

"In* Persia, the land of ups and downs, the vocation of a robber has been described as the stepping stone to the post of Governor. \n the south the Persian force raised .by Sir Percy Sykes had been successful during 1917 in maintaining safety on the trade routes; but in the vicinity of Isfahan two powerful robber chieftaias, Rega Khan Juzdaui and Chiragh Ali, had defied the efforts of the Persian Cossacks under Russian officers to maintain security on the roads. Further north, on tho shores of the Caspian, the Jangali band under Kuchik Khan practically ruled tho whole of the province of Gilan, and ruled it rather well according to Persian standdards. From the headquarters at Kasma, some 17 miles north-west of Rcsht, ho played the part of a modern Robin Hood, oppressing the rich and securing the adhesion of the poor by remitting their taxation. By kidnapping and other means he extorted' very lange sums from the rich, all money received being scrupulously paid into a common treasure chest. from which every member of the band, from himself downward, received a definite monthly salary. The pay of a .lancali trooper was 100 krans a month, nearly double that, paid by the Russians to a private in the Persian Cossacks. Various abortive RossoPersian expeditions were organised against the band in 1915-16, but after the revolution they managed to maintain friendly relations with the Russians, and at iirst scrupulously refrained from all interference with "Europeans. Kuchik Khan had considerable dealings with the Turks and Germans during 1917. and inrmy enemy prisoners, escaped from Transcaspin passed through his headquarter.-, and sovi appear to have acted a* drill instructors to his men or in other advis-iry rapacities. In the winter of 1917-18 he dismissed tho Governor of Resht, nominated by the Shah's Government, and installed his own nominee. Early in the present year he arrested our Vice-Consul. the local manager of the Imperial Hank of Persia. and others, but subsequently liberated them, and since then a modus vivendi has been arrived at. The band purchased largo quantities of arms, ammunition. and equipment from the troops returning to Russia in 1917-18. and maintain a partiallv trained pernnnent force.'"