ملاحظات أُعدت كمرجع خلال جولة كرزون في الخليج الفارسي، وأوراق أخرى عن بلاد فارس والخليج الفارسي [و‎‎٢‎٥‎٢] (٦٧٨/٥٠٣)

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[This Document is the Property of Her Britannic Majesty’s Government.]
CONFIDENTIAL.
ASIA.
NO. 7. PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY.
[September 25.]
Section 1.
2511
Sir M. Durand to the Marquess of Salisbury .— [Received September 25.)
(No. 70.)
(Telegraphic.) P.
Gulhek, September 25, 1896.
1 HAVE the honour to reply to your Lordship’s telegram No. 41 of the 22nd
September. The Sadr Azam’s threat of resignation need not, in my opinion, be taken
as seriously meant. His Highness constantly threatened to resign during the reign
of the late Shah, but he never did. If, however, Mr. Tanfield’s assailant is adequately
punished by the Persian Government, we can dispense with his execution in view of the
fact that Mr. Tanfield is likely to live. The Persian Government have unfortunately
only suggested mutilating Saduck. There is no such thing as penal servitude in Persia,
and there are no means of carrying out the sentence suggested by the Sadr Azam.
When I asked His Highness three weeks ago how lie could guarantee that the culprit
remained in prison and was punished, he said that he would devise a plan and inform me
of it. But he has not done so as yet.
With reference to the other arguments used by the Persian Minister to your
Lordship, such a thing as a regular criminal trial in Persia does not exist. Saduck does
not deny his guilt, but I was nevertheless careful to make his punishment depend on his
being convicted. There need be no fear of a rising at Ahwaz nor of a violent anti-
foreign feeling being aroused in the country unless the Persian Government deliberately
foments both. No notice has been attracted by the case in Tehran or anywhere else
except on the Karun. The demand for compensation is a fair one because Saduck’s
crime was probably in great measure the result of the inactivity displayed by the local
authorities in the Malamir case and of the dangerous feeling aroused thereby. I will
deal with the question as your Lordship has directed me to do, but though I was very
reluctant to bring matters to a point for the reasons given in my despatch No. 51 of the
14th ultimo, I think it necessary that the case should now be seriously pressed in the
interests of our trade and influence. I have received the Sadr Azam’s promise that he
will make proposals in a day or two.
The matter is still by way of being dealt with privately, and I have delayed sending
in the demands officially on the ground that I did not wish to embarrass His Highness.
[1512 h —1]