Coll 28/39(2) ‘Persia. Printed Correspondence, 1937–’ [‎107v] (214/320)

8
tarv attache This officer had actually left Paris before the ru P tu ^ e >, bul ;
was stoDoed in Bucharest. He later received orders to proceed to Tehran
was stoppea in i)u difficultv The French Minister had not been
and arrived i gather that the Iranian Ministry
„ tto MiliU^ Attache’s unexpected ^
dppearanee.^^^ incident hag added to the troubles of the French Legation
d comm u n itv here. When the former French Military Attach^ lelt some
weeksTgo he transferred his stock of wines, etc., to the house of a Monsieur
Mathis 8 the local representative of Messrs. Schneiders and other French
firms ’This was of course observed by the police and Monsieur Mathis was
arrested A search of his house disclosed some sporting weapons for which
Monsieur Mathis had no licence. The French Minister tells me that
Monsieur Mathis has not asked for any assistance from the ^tmn and
that the police examination of his papers gave no evidence of any activi
ties which could possibly be considered ‘political’. The matter is thus, in
Monsieur Bodard’s view, merely one of certain minor ‘"egulantiesot
which Monsieur Mathis had unfortunately been gui 7- . S ... •
been proceeding for some days between the police authorities and Monsieur
Mathis’ representatives as to the amount of the fine which Monsieur Mathis
should pay, and the French Minister expects his release in the near future
The. incident has aroused a good deal of feeling among the French community
here, and it must be admitted that it forms a bad precedent for the treat-
ment of foreigners in future.
5. I am sending copies of this despatch to the Secretary G . ov fT“
ment of India in the External Affairs Department and to His Majesty s
Ambassadors at Baghdad and Paris.
p s —Since I wrote this despatch the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
in the course of a conversation which I had with him on the 11th .February-
observed that he had some hopes that a settlement of the trouble with France
might be reached before April, as it would be a V'ty thm ^ would
ment were not represented on such an occasion. . i c||
indeed be a matter for regret: the relations, especially in the cult " ra ’’
between Iran and France had been so close and so long maintained that it
ought to be possible to compose the present difficulty. I added that 1 had
read Monsieur Bonnet’s statement in the Chamber, a ^. hoP^haUm
very cordial references to Iran might have led to a * , • h d
a >lam said that Monsieur Bonnet’s statement, friendly as it was, had
unfortunately contained a phrase to the effect that the news P£P er ou j,™ t ^ e
complaint was made had made no offensive reference to the Sh^ the
Iranian Government however maintained that th f, ex P r ®® s d ? oblwue
le Chat’ could not possibly be used without its author intend / n S
reference to the ruler of Iran. At any rate, His Imperial Majesty still
felt strongly on the subject. .. _.
I think there is no doubt that Monsieur ATam would like to see this
rather absurd dispute brought to an end^ He is however in rather a d ffi-
cuit position as, if he advises a policy of forgive and fo^et, and the
French press should again give offence, his situation would be most unenvi-
able.
Enclo. II to S. No. (7).
Copy of Telegram from His Majesty’s Minister, Tehran, to the
Foreign Office, London, No. 11, dated the 13th January iy«*y.
Mv telegram No. 7. French Government a PP roacbed ^ urklsb
ment with object of trying to arrange matters through eir _ ’
Turkish Ambassador has however been informed that ur
elapse before anything can be done.