IN "NO MAN'S LAND."

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 617, 1 February 1916, Page 6

IN "NO MAN'S LAND."

jA KHURDISH AMNESTY. THE RUSSIANS IN TURCO-PERSIA j ; |We hpve received (says the "Man- ; Chester Guardian") from our correspon- ; ilent, Mr Philips Price, whose articles j ! on the chaos the war has caused in | Northern Persia we have recently pub- j ! lished from lime to time, the following; ! description of the scenes he witnessed | ( when the Russians recently granted a j general amnesty to the Khurdish chiefs j on the Turco-Persian border.] I'RUMIAH (Persia), October. | The Russian military authorities; have promised a general amnesty to ■ |sill Khurdish chiefs who will come! | in and made peace with Russia with-i | in a given time. According to the: (terms, the properly even of those! I who have been lighting against Rus-' jsia will be respected, and in return I jlhe chiefs will sign a pledge of goodi behaviour before the Persian Government, will help to repatriate the! [Christian population oF their dis-j jtrict, and finally will leave one of their sons as hostage with the Per-1 isian Governor of Urumiah. Recently I was privileged to wit--j ness some of the scenes connected j iwith this Khurdish amnesty. Start-j jing from an old Persian town one' I morning on horseback, I rode out I with a small company towards the j mountains which divide Turkey 1 from Persia. The Cossack posts lay j a short distance up a river valley, where a fertile plain narrows into a gorge. Perched on rocky eminences which looked back on the! j plain, chess-boarded with riceh'elds, j ;orchards, and poplar woods, we; (looked forward from those outposts jof the Russian army on a wild and! j romantic scene. Hie ridges of the j Central Asian plateau rose tier upon J tier before one's eyes and were: | dominated on the horizon by the j frowning, snow-speckled mountains; of the Turco-Persian frontier. We were looking out upon a "no man's I j land" which, only recently evacuated by the Turkish forces, had not yet; j been reached by the Russian army.j Here dwelt some of the Khurdish! !chief's with their wild tribes, whom! jit is hoped to make the future buf-j fers between Turkey and Persia to' [prevent aggression by (he former, j Our road lay up a narrow valley! along which bounded a mountain istream. The open spaces were covered with patches of drooping wheal! jand barley, for the war has stopped! j the work of harvesting here. Burnt ! (villages and ruined vineyards were Iseen on every side. By the riverside! [lay the bodies of two dead Khurds, blackened and twisted in the sun. j l They had been killed a lew days !before in an affray with a Cossack! j patrol. After leaving orders fori [their burial so as not to pollute the ! water supply of the plain, we pro-| |ceed,ed upstream cautiously. Soon | Jwe came to an open Hat, where we ! beheld an encampment, and on ap- , preaching discovered a large parly of Christian ryots who had been hung | up in this country between the Russian and Turkish lines, unable to gel j back to their homes. They were in ; a terrible slate, clad in rags, their!< j moans of support consisting of a few • rapidly depleting bags of maize. I They welcomed us with joy, for their;! I situation was becoming desperate,!) and told us thai, as the Khurds were 1 only a short distance ahead, they < feared to move another inch. < It was now the business of our < party to find the Khurds and ' try to secure for these Christians, I with their families and oxen, a pas- ' sage to their homes. Across a neck ( of the valleyside which projected in- < to the plain we suddenly saw thef' sinister outline of a gigantic man ( armed from head to foot with rifle, ' revolver, and dagger. lie was the | advanced guard of one of the Khurd- j ish tribes whose pacification it was hoped to effect. Soon a dozen such| C apparitions started up from the earth r and moved towards us. There was a moment of tension, and then a few L sentences in Khurdish put them at!' our feet, for our party contained atdoctor, whose influence with a medi-L cine bottle among the Khurds was as| valuable as a military force. An-Ijj other hour's ride brought us to a n caravanserai, or wayside resting- s house, from the roof of which Hew « a tattered Hag. A score or more pic- { turesque ruffians in baggy trousers Ijj and peaked head dress surrounded! 0

the building. Here resided a Khurdish chief who since the evacuation of the Turks had set himself up as dictator of the countryside, and from this spot on the road had levied tribute on the surrounding villages and on all passers-by. It was to put a stop to this state of affairs, as well as to pass the Christians on to their! homes, that our little expedition had! come. The chief lived in the topmost room of the caravanserai, from j which a grand view of the surround-! ing country could be obtained. No force of troops could approach up the valley without being .seen, and: ne and his bodyguard were ready to; bolt at a moment's notice. All that evening was spent in squatting' round the chief on a large carpet,; while in the dim light the sinister! figures of gigantic Khurds, armed to j' he teeth, stood around us. In the I •nd gentle persuasion was success-! 'ul: the Christians were allowed to >ass, and the chief agreed to makci' >eace with Russia, and abjure Turk- j sh intrigues in future. Thus the •ause of the Allies triumphed in the! simple and good-natured, if some- j imes turbulent, minds of the' Khurds. j i A few days later I accompanied a': similar expedition to meet another < •hief who had come in to surrender. < Khurdish horseman with a white ( lag had come down the valley to an- i louncc his master's approach. On < caching the spot appointed beyond < he Cossack posts no one was to be t

seen, and we feared ;i ruse or even worse. On returning to the Cossack posts the scouts reported that they had seen nothing, but it was surmised that the chief and his body of J troops had drawn near to the posts, I had had a lit of nerves, and then j retreated to another valley, where he was probably in hiding. Leaving all display of armed force behind, so ' as to cause no fear, we proceeded up i the valley for some distance. Mere I we met a native Christian who had ! been sent up by the Cossacks to I scout. He reported that he had seen them early that morning. Presently we saw a large party of horsemen coming towards us, and recognised the Khurdish chief. I have 1 seen few more picturesque sights •than a cavalcade of Khurds surrounding their chiefs. Their quaint headdress, brilliant tunics, and baggy trousers all combine to tone down the ferocity with which they display their arms and ammunition, and are | indeed an echo of the Middle Ages. ! It is remarkable to think that these i men have for a whole year, as instruments of Turkey, been defying | the modern military force of Russia, | aided by Nature and their mountain I fastnesses. Our next object was to pass them . through the Cossack posts without frightening them, for at the sight their impulse was to take to their heels or get behind a rock and open 1 lire. On being assured of Russia's jgood intentions, they were persuad- | ed to approach, and after the necesisary explanations with the Cossacks :we passed into the territory occupied iby the Russian army, to the shaded spot under, a; poplar grove where a | conference was to take place bejtween the Khurds and the diplomatic representative of the Tsar. The latter explained the uselessness of continuing the struggle against Russia, who in the course of the last hundred years had come out successful from every conflict with Turkey: he j added also that Russia had over 20,000,000 Moslems among her subjects, all of whom were contented j with their lot, and the Khurds therefore had no need to fear from entering into relations with her. These 'words had their effect, and it is i hoped that before very long most of | the Khurds of the Turco-Persian border will have settled accounts I with Russia, and will assist the Persian Government in withstanding i any further Turkish intrigue.