The Progrhss of the World. 



remind the world that the extension of her authority 

 means ilie closing of schools in order to build barracks. 

 But the Ministers now in power apjiear to have set 

 their faces in the , wrong direction. M. Stolypin 

 assured me that Russia would welcome the Salvation 

 Army, whose philanthropic operations are at least as 

 much needed there as in Great Britain. Last month 

 the Council of Ministers decided to forbid the entry 

 of the Salvation .\rmy into Russia. This is a bad 

 retrograde step worthy of the dark days of M. 

 Pobedonostseff. 



The 



liaise Friends 



of 



Persia. 



Mr. Shuster, the American Official in Teheran. 



Tliis purtr;iil was lakun recently in Pcrsi.i. The lady in black 

 on Mr. Shunter's left hand is Mrs. Shuster. 



It is common ground ainong all 

 Liberals that it is desirable that the 

 Persians should be allowed, and 

 not only allowed but encouraged, 

 and not only encouraged but helped, to govern them- 

 selves. It is also common ground among all men that 

 it is desirable that the integrity of Persia should be 

 preserved, if for no other reason than that Persia, as 

 a buffer Stale, should continue to prevent the Russian 

 and British Empires becoming conterminous in Asia. 

 To preserve this integrity it is essential that the 

 Persians should maintain some semblance of order in 

 die territory they profess to govern, and that they 

 should curb their desires for the extreme exer- 

 cise of their independence within such limits as 

 would prevent collisions with their neighbours in the 

 north or in the south. Unfortunately the Persians 

 have not maintained order ; and even more unfortu- 

 nately they have been lured into a course of action 

 which brought them into sharp conflict with their 

 neighbours in the north. The inevitable result 

 followed. The Persians ignored what the Russians re- 

 garded as their interests or their rights. The Russians 

 replied by a double-barrelled ultimatum backed by a 

 threat to march on Teheran. The Persians refused 

 at first to give way, and their resistance aroused the 

 enthusiasm of anti - Russians everywhere. That 

 enthusiasm abroad was of little importance, but at 

 Tabriz, the anti-Russian element, .\rmenian, Jewish 

 and Turkish, came into armed collision with the 

 Russian troops. The usual recriminations followed, 

 but the British Consul has reported that there is no 

 truth in the accusations brought against the Russians 

 of massacring the inhabitants. 



The Russians provisionally occupy 

 Tabriz, where it is obvious the 

 Teheran Governiuent is incapable 

 of maintaining order. As the 

 Persian Government has submitted to the ultimatum 

 the march on Teheran is stopped. In the middle 

 zone between the Russiaiv and British sphere of 

 influence the local forces of disorder got so far out of 

 hand as to attack and wound the British Consul, who 

 was on his way to Shiraz escorted by a hundred armed 

 men. The incident illustrates the dangerous state of 

 things prevailing throughout Persia, and the absurdity 

 r>f regarding the Persians as a homogeneous self- 

 governing unit. Persian independence spells 

 anarchy if it is absolute, and the only way to 

 preserve Persian integrity is for the Persians and 

 their .sympathisers in P^^uroin; and .America to acquiesce 

 with good grace in the tcmporaryexerci.se of a limited 



The 

 Only Way Out. 



