Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎416r] (834/1814)

wmmmmmmrnmmmmmmm
' Vas So °ner 0r ,
ltl0n . ev en am ^
of *>* <;;*.,
= tlle Shah’s sJ^t
THE ARMY
587
! Of p er • Set '
TO ,t .
^aravai] t
5 ot one of t] ■
nt 1 0 , be,iSSanCe
de Ie w S droits
de gmder ou de
Persians in their !tt i
I M a little lower in |,
:he middle of thecentij
tos represented at Teh
ers, refugees from Sajk
arians and Austrians, lent
The latter appeared op
icers, a doctor, a chemist
ia ; the rest vanished ii
arrived in 1854
ween the years
opearing in plain
sticks, with which
1 to draw tears ev
ission turned up :
four commission
r and a m<xbm»
i even ft*
ister,
sgusted at th
• atMeffi"*
■If again of 1,6
[stance. If*
an Govern® 81 *
towards Persia at this time, and of the superb indifference displayed
by both to British interests in Central Asia, that the proposal
R ewed trough owing to a petty squabble as to the share of
demands the expense to be borne by the Indian and Persian ex-
English chequers. 1 * * Once again, in the year 1870, the request was
officers renewed ; but the criminal reign of masterly inactivity
being then in its prime, it was again refused, the plea for rejection
being the charge that Persia was engaged in hostilities against
British allies in the shape of Afghanistan and Beluchistan. As late
as 1874, Sir H. Rawlinson still recommended 4 an experimental con
tingent force of 10,000 men raised, armed, fed, paid, clothed, disci
plined, and commanded by British officers; ’ but his voice was as
that of one crying in the wilderness, and the demand is one that,
so far as we can judge, is not likely to be immediately renewed,
and might now be attended with difficulties that would not have
been encountered at an earlier juncture. Vain though the experi
ment of a regular army may have been in the earlier years of the
century, the presence of British officers with the Persian troops
could not fail to have been attended with salutary political conse
quences ; whilst there are districts in Persia where their labours,
if energetically supported, might have resulted in an invaluable
addition to the defensive strength of the kingdom.
On the occasion of his second visit to Europe in 1878, the Shah
was particularly impressed with the reception accorded to him, and
8 . Austrian with the sights arranged for his edification, in Vienna;
officers and the result of this satisfaction was an arrangement
by which a large staff of Austrian civil and military officials
was again placed at his disposal for a period of three years, in
order to reorganise both branches of the Persian public service.
Eleven officers, including a colonel, a major, three captains, and
five lieutenants, arrived in Teheran in January 1879 ; and the
scheme propounded for their employment was the formation of
seven battalions of 800 each, or a total force of 5,600 men,
in the province of Irak, Sultanabad being the organising head
quarters, and a year being allowed, at the end of which time the
troops were to be presented in spick-and-span order to the Shah.
1 Even at this late period the names of one or two Englishmen still figuied in
the Persian Army List. About the year 1860, Colonel Dolmage, formerly a surgeon,
was superintendent of the arsenal and powder-mill at Meshed, and a Major
Young was also in the Persian service.