'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎118r] (240/610)

Since this date until the end of 1920 no Majlis has been
assembled, and the Cabinet has shared the government with the
Shah, while after the collapse of Russia and her disappearance
as a factor in Persian politics in 1918, the British Minister,
on whose financial aid they are dependent, has been the con
trolling power behind them.
Owing to the youth and inexperience of Sultan Ahmad Shah, Shm.
the power has been chiefly vested in the Cabinet, but the Shah
has, nevertheless, enjoyed greater latitude and opportunity of
interference in the government than is allowed to him by the
Constitution.
The initiative in legislation lies with the Cabinet, and in the Cabinet,
absence of the Majlis to give or refuse assent, the measures
are promulgated by royal decree.
The Cabinet under the presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. of the Prime Minister
decides not only the weighty matters of state, but also a great
mass of departmental detail. The Premier, besides guiding the
general policy, often reserves to himself the conduct of im
portant foreign or domestic questions, and sometimes takes
direct charge of a department of state. His patronage extends
to the more important official appointments such as envoys,
ministers, governors, commissioners, etc.
Cabinets have followed each other in quick succession and Break down of
found their most stable support in the dominant foreign m- tkfnalregtoe,
fluence of the day, and with the exception of the Cabinet of
Vusiiq-ud-Dauelh who enjoyed British assistance and held
office from August 1918 to June 1920, no Cabinet since 1914
has survived for more than 10 months, and their average tenure
of office has been less than 6 months. During the war the
Persians as a whole from their hatred of Russia forgot their
old enmity with Turkey, and while powerless to prevent Russian
troops entering Persia, they were ready to take German bribes
and connive at Turkish violations of Persian neutrality. The
Cabinet at Tehran, however, was usually dominated by the
presence of Russian troops at Kazvln and at most could only
be mildly pro-Turk, so its authority was disregarded in the
provinces, with the result that the provincial revenues ceased
to reach the Treasury, and the Government came to depend
to an increasing extent on doles from Russia and Great Britain
for its current expenses.
Administrative paralysis pervades every branch of the
Government. Elaborate rules for the procedure and organi
zation of the ministerial departments exist on paper, but few