Letters and Papers Concerning the Trans-Persian Railway and Other Railways in Persia [‎208v] (416/442)

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Persia.
Persia.
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[LORDS]
Majesty’s Government think fit to give any
support to the Persian Government.
“ Patriotism ” seems to be only a virtue in
the case of a great and powerful and
Christian nation ; where in a country like
Turkey or Persia efforts are made by the
people to defend their rights and freedom
patriotism is held to be rather an absurdity
and almost a wickedness. Personally I
regard with admiration those w T ho have done
their best to hold on to their country and
to make it an independent country.
It is customary for upholders of the
policy of His Majesty’s Government to say
that Persians are quite incapable of ruling
their own country. I emphatically express
my dissent from that point of view. I have
come in contact in Persia with men who
are quite capable, in my opinion, of ruling
their country. You have Mr. Shuster’s
opinion on that point. There are men in
Persia quite fit to occupy important posts
and to maintain order and secure the proper
working of responsible government. Also
I have come in contact with people who
have been for a long time resident in Persia,
who know Persia and its inhabitants better
than do our own Government officials, and
who say that there are men there who are
absolutely qualified in this direction. Yet
the taunt is constantly flung in their face
that they are incapable of managing their
own affairs. If that doctrine was sound it
is the more ridiculous to make out that you
are working the Convention with the idea of
setting up a free and independent country.
For myself, I believe that the Anglo-
Russian Convention was brought into being
in order to save His Majesty’s Government
from having a policy about Persia at all.
Secondly, it fulfilled the object of acting as
a screen to the British public regarding the
true position of affairs in Persia. When
ever an incident occurs in that country
of a deplorable nature a curtain bearing
the inscription “ The Convention ; all is
well” is at once let down, and the gaze
of the public is hidden from the drama
which is being enacted on the Persian stage.
The question may be put to me, “ What
do you propose should be done in Persia ?
Can it be saved now ? ” I believe that,
even at the eleventh hour, something
practical could be done to save Persia and to
maintain its integrity. First of all, you
have a very peaceable and tractable
people easily governed. The bulk of the
people are renowned for their peaceful
Lord Lamington.
proclivities. There are one or two aggres
sive tribes, but they are not of the character*
of those tribes on the North-West frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan.
| of India with which we have had to deal,
and I believe that in a short space of time
| they could be brought into submission.
! The great bulk of the people of Persia are
quite easy to rule. Then, again, you have
a body of men who could be easily trained
and disciplined to act as gendarmerie.
While I was in Persia I came in contact
1 with some of the remnants of Mr. Shuster’s
gendarmerie, and I found them an excellent,
| willing and scrupulously honest body of men.
The energetic and zealous Swedish officers
! who are training the gendarmerie there
could not speak too highly of the aptitude
of their Persian recruits to learn their drill
and make themselves a model gendarmerie.
Those two factors might help towards
securing Persian independence.
But there must be two big changes. First
of all, you must get rid of the present
financial system, which commands no
confidence at all, either amongst Persians or
amongst British residents in the country ;
and, secondly, there must be a complete
change of attitude on the part of the two
Governments towards the working of the
Convention. They would have to put
life and spirit into the words “ independence
and integrity.” They must honestly desire
to infuse a national spirit into the people,
and the Government must not be liable to be
suppressed whenever at any particular time
they are able to execute some reform. That
has been what has taken place in the past,
and the object of my remarks to-night is to
let the public in this country know that all is
not well in Persia, and that at the present
time there are complications which may
develop very seriously, and perhaps dis-
i astrously, because the independence of the
ancient kingdom of Persia now hangs by
the very finest of threads and its integrity
is rifted through and through.
*The LORD PRIVY SEAL and
j SECRETARY of STATE for INDIA
(The Marquess of Crewe) : My Lords,
I am sorry that my noble friend, Lord
Morley,'who usually undertakes the reply to
Foreign Office questions on behalf of the
Government, could not be in his place
to-day, as he is receiving an honour which
he highly prizes at the hands of his fellow-
townsmen in Lancashire. But, as it
happens, in relation to this particular
question it is also my business to keep