PERSIA 



Morocco. Fearing that Mr. Stokes might engage in the contest with the ex-Shah, his 

 language became sharper and sharper, until on August 7th, he said that he would not 

 protest against any objection that Russia might take to the employment of Major Stokes 

 in the north. He held indeed, that such objection would be justified. Two days later 

 he had come round altogether to the Russian views, and Russia no longer hesitated 

 to veto the appointment. Mr. Shuster had committed himself deeply, and his prestige 

 was affected. It is not too much to say that the telegram sent by Sir Edward Grey 

 on July 2ist was the beginning of the end for the Treasurer-General. 



We must now return to the ex-Shah, premising that the tale of the military operations 

 is too disjointed and in some respects too obscure to be given in any detail. Mohamed 

 AH had landed in Persia on July i8th, with a very small band, including 

 Ex-Shah's j^g two brothers. He had evidently expected support on the spot, and not 

 defeated. without reason. The Turcoman and Kurdish tribes of the north had never 

 been loyal to the new government, and in the towns, except Teheran, there 

 was a belief that any change would be for the better. In the capital panic prevailed. 

 The Mejliss declared martial law, but afterwards wasted its energies in brawls with 

 prominent politicians, much to the distress of the unhappy Regent. Yeprim Khan and 

 Mr. Shuster alone kept their heads. Between them they called up and equipped 

 Bakhtiari, and 500 men were hurriedly enrolled in the gendarmerie. Early in August 

 a forward move was made. There were four centres of insurrection. First, there was 

 the ex-Shah himself, who had roused most of the Caspian littoral. Next was Rahim 

 Khan, now called Suja-ed-Dowleh, who was operating about Tabriz. Thirdly there 

 were the tribesmen in the west under Salar-ed-Dowleh, the ex-Shah's brother; and 

 finally Arshad-ed-Dowleh, his best general, was moving on the capital from the south- 

 east. Early in August the ex-Shah's troops were defeated by the government forces at 

 Feruzkuh in the mountains to the north-east of Teheran. The reverse destroyed the 

 morale of the ex-Shah's troops, but the decisive victory was won on September 5th, when 

 Yeprim attacked Arshad-ed-Dowleh at a point some 40 miles south-east of Teheran and 

 completely defeated him. The rebel leader was captured and was shot the day after the 

 battle. Yeprim hastened on to meet Prince Salar-ed-Dowleh, who had by this time 

 proclaimed himself king. On September 2yth, in a battle well to the south of Teheran, 

 the government won a complete victory, and the capital was freed from danger. By 

 October the insurrection had been practically suppressed except in the north. 



The Great Powers, which had been watching events, now re-asserted themselves. 

 Faced with the paralysis of British trade in the south, the British Government decided 

 to bring up troops from India with a view to strengthening the Consular 

 forward guards at various places within and without the British sphere. The 

 policy. Russians, when informed of this move, announced that they would take 



corresponding steps in the north, where the atmosphere was becoming, from 

 their point of view, too British. The news threw the British Foreign Office into a panic 

 and helped to force a crisis. For the situation in the Russian sphere was so bad that if 

 Russia once moved there was no telling where she would stop. Her representations 

 were no longer sure of attention, still less of acceptance, in Teheran. It was there be- 

 lieved that she had connived at the ex-Shah's attempt, and Mr. Shuster was now hand 

 and glove with the extreme Nationalists whom he had made the dominant faction in the 

 Mejliss. He had come to the conclusion that the Russians were utterly antagonistic 

 to all Persian reform, and in the middle of October sent to the London Times a long 

 letter embodying his complaints. The Russian government seized the opportunity to 

 inform the London Cabinet that they contemplated measures of extreme urgency. The 

 man of political experience, the Regent, even Yeprim the Chief of Police, realised the 

 fatal tendency of events in Teheran. But a rupture with Russia was inevitable unless 

 either the Mejliss or Mr. Shuster was rendered impotent. So matters dragged on until 

 at last both the Mejliss and Mr. Shuster found their work summarily closed. 



Two incidents occasioned the crisis. First, at the beginning of November, Mr. 

 Shuster appointed as his financial agent in Tabriz a Mr. Lecoffre, who had been em- 



