نسخة مذيلة من "بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي" بقلم جورج كرزون، مع أوراق مدرجة [ظ‎‎٨‎٧‎٠] (١٨١٤/١٧٥٧)

£
602 PERSIA
Herein I am actuated by no narrow prejudice or national jealousy,
inasmuch as I am profoundly convinced that England neithei wants
No justifi- f° possess, nor ought to possess, nor ever will possess,
cation for those territories herself. Nor am I a tainted witness
“ssioL as regards Russia in the East; for in my previous
work I have admitted, and I here repeat the admission, that in hei
career ol Central Asian conquest she has, though by devious and
often dishonourable means, achieved a successful and salutary end
and that she deserves the praise due to those who substitute order
for anarchy, and are the pioneers even of a crude civilisation. I
have wished her well in Transcaspia and Turkestan, and I would
be a party to no movement for disturbing her rule. But I do not
say the same of Persia. On the contrary, the very pleas which
have extenuated and justified Russian advance elsewhere in Central
Asia, and which she is always quoting in self-defence, are wanting
here. No one can contend that the Persians of Khorasan are a
gang of lawless freebooters like the Turkomans; that they are a
peril to their neighbours and a scourge to society. No insecurity
of life or property in Khorasan or Azerbaijan demands the in
stallation of a military despotism for the coercion of unruly
elements. No sluggish pools of superstition or prejudice require-
to be stirred by the wand of a European magician. On the
contrary, the Persians are far too timid a people to constitute a
danger to anybody else, and are in many respects quite as advanced
in civilisation as the Russians themselves. Regarding them as a
distinct nationality, resident in the territories which they have-
occupied from time immemorial, under a sovereign and with a
language, religion, customs, and individuality of their own, I can
see no reason for suppressing their independent existence and
subjecting them to an alien sway. The Government of Persia is
in many respects bad enough, but that of Russia is not likely R>
be so immeasurably superior as to outweigh the claims to respect
which an ancient and illustrious history and the main conditions
of national existence (even in the absence of a national spirit)
combine to create. A superiority of influence in North Persia,
and in the districts coterminous with her own borders, is an
advantage to which Russia from her position is entitled, and which
no fair man will be disposed to grudge her. But influence is a
different thing from ownership, and where the one is legitimate-
the other may be both mischievous and unpardonable.
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