'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎451] (510/714)

THE GOVERNMENT
451
i durm g llls year of office, were cancelled upon his resignation 1
and that at the same time the improved state of the province was
made a ground for screwing a higher pishhesh out of his suc
cessor.
I have already pointed out that the balk of this bureaucratic
horde are not paid by the State, but are expected to remunerate
Salaries themselves, and that for the same reason the salaries of
and titles the higher officials are fixed at a notoriously inadequate
ngure, A further characteristic results from the combined disloca
tion and parsimony of the system, viz. that even the fixed and official
salaries are frequently in arrears, or are not paid at all. Europeans
m the service of the State are better paid or more regularly paid
than Persians, because, if they do not get their salaries, they are
apt to send m their resignations. But even they have often been
put off with harats, or orders, payable some weeks or months from
date, on some merchant in the bazaar; whilst the native official is
frequently without even this compensation, and in the absence of
any sign of an impending settlement of his little account with the
State, makes up the deficit from other quarters. How fatally this
condition of affairs operates in the case of the army will be seen
lateron. In somewhat ludicrous contrast with this sordid and de
spicable system are the brave and sonorous titles that are worn by
the official hierarchy of whom I have been speaking. As will have
been gathered from my narrative, ministers, or functionaries of any
position, are seldom called by their proper names, but are known
by the ornamental titles that have been conferred upon them by
the Shah. ^ These titles are much sought after, inasmuch as they
confer distinction, security, and the opportunity of lucre. Thev
are divided into three classes: those with the suffix Sultaneh, i.e.
of the Government, which are rarely conferred except upon
members of the Royal Family; those with the suffix Dowleh, of the
Empire or State; and those with the suffix Mulk, of the Kina-dom.
tis to be feared that the majority of their owners think of little
else but plundering the government, state, or kingdom of which
they are grandiloquently described as the Ornament, Support
-Defence, Pillar, or Strength.
retaed\a ^ ? f'™' P - 3U) SayS he was dismisseti be0i >" s <=
retused to pay to the Naib-es-Sultaneh a pishkesh of 4,000Z. as sadir or extra
reve^m addition to the greatly increased or ordinary revenue; wLch he
had already paid in. But this does not appear to be true.
g g 2