Our job in sitting down in Bijar was to hold the place against the Turks and prevent their coming back, to instil a little wholesome respect for law and order into the minds of the plunder-loving Kurds, and to stop them from eating up the smaller and unprotected Persian fry. To keep the Turk at bay and hold the Kurd in awe, we had approximately a couple of squadrons of the 14th Hussars, under Colonel Bridges, a detachment of the Gloucesters in charge of Captain Stephenson, machine-gun and mountain battery sections, and a couple of hundred of Persian levies who were commanded by Captain Williams, an Australian officer. Colonel Bridges was in command of the whole force. The total certainly did not err on the side of numerical superiority. The day after I reached Bijar the Governor arrived to pay an official call. After the usual formalities as laid down by Persian etiquette for ceremonies of this kind had been safely negotiated, he begged my acceptance of a manuscript copy of his poems, and incidentally hinted that, as the district was in the throes of famine, he would have no objection to collaborating in the purchasing of wheat with British money in order to alleviate the prevailing distress. {236} CHAPTER XXIII THE END OF HOSTILITIES Types of Empire defenders--Local feeling--Dealing with Kurdish raiders--An embarrassing offer of marriage--Prestige by aeroplane--Anniversary of Hossain the Martyr--News of the Armistice--Local waverers come down on our side of the fence--Releasing civil prisoners--Farewell of Bijar--Down country to the sea and home. I have often wondered if the British who stayed at home, through force of circumstances rather than any reluctance to participate in the Great War, can have had any conception of the varying types of men who helped to uphold British interests in this remote and little-known corner of the Asiatic Continent. Here, then, are a few of them taken at random!