مجموعة ٢٩ /٤٢ "النفقات الدبلوماسية والقنصلية: المساهمات (من الإيرادات الهندية) في دفع تكلفة وجود قس بريطاني في طهران؛ المقابر المسيحية في بلاد فارس والخليج الفارسي" [و‎‎١‎٧] (٧٠٤/٣٢)

©
-J
Enclosure to Shiraz despatch No* 8 of 18th March, 193 9
Extract from the minutes of the Shiraz Cemetery
Meeting of March 11 th 1959*
104* Mr. King stated that on February 2Lst he visited the old
Armenian Cemetery at Bagh—i—Takht with a German Professor,
Herr Dr. Hinz, who was interested in the grave of Freiherr von
Minutoli, the first Prussian Minister to Persia. Dr. Hinz
wished to embellish the tomb and to obtain the co-operation of
the British colony in putting up the fourth wall. Mr. King
found that of the 25 gravestones with English inscriptions
which had been there when the cemetery was last inspected in
1935 by Mr. Gamble, only five remained, that the three walls
although solidly built apd already large holes at the base
on the north side and were under-mined by a water course on
the west side, and thet the cemetery as a whole appeared to
be used as a public latrine for the barracks. It further
appeared from the Consular records that the three walls had
been erected in 1928 out of funds provided by the foreign
colonies and thot the Armenian community who had undertaken
to put up the fourth wall had failed to do so in spite
of reminders reiterated over a number of years. Moreover
in 1934 the municipality had registered the cemetery as V/aqf
property and the Armenians had allowed the period of 3 months
in which opposition could be made to lapse without protest.
On December 8 th 1934 His Majesty’s Consul wrote to the
Governor General requesting that the cemetery should be
respected but no reply had been received, although the head
of the Armenian community had been assured by the Rais-i-
Baladieh on March 30th 1935 that the sale of the property
would be postponed and that no decision ,ould be taken without
his being notified. In view of the foregoing Mr. King had
informed Dr. Hinz that he saw no possibility of raising
further funds for the preservation of a cemetery which at any
moment might be swept away by the military authorities and
had suggested that the remaining foreign gravestones, including
that/