THE FALL OF THE PRIME MINISTER. 145 



Shah to Europe ; nevertheless, the said Prime Minister, 

 the courteous, if ambitious, Atabeg-Azam, who so 

 kindly granted me an audience while at Teheran, has 

 since found it convenient, as it is euphemistically put, 

 to embark upon a prolonged pilgrimage to Mecca ! 

 And the Ain-ed-Dowleh, formerly governor of Teheran, 

 now reigns in his stead. 



It has not been my purpose in the present chapter 

 to portray Persia as a piece, acting in conjunction with 

 other pieces, upon the international chess-board of the 

 East, — that I hope to do in a subsequent chapter. I 

 have merely made mention of such passing events as 

 happened to take place during my visit to the country 

 in the spring of 1903, because such events, however 

 small in themselves, are the factors which combine to 

 determine the direction of any move — even if it be 

 but the move of a pawn — which may subsequently be 

 made. Let me dwell but one moment longer, before 

 leaving the country, to offer praise to whom praise is 

 due for those signs of a recrudescence of British pres- 

 tige which it was impossible not to observe. If Sir 

 Arthur Hardinge had done no more than to force 

 upon the British Government the necessity of adopt- 

 ing a policy with regard to Persia, he would indeed 

 have deserved well of his country ; but I may further 

 add, without, I hope, incurring a charge of imperti- 

 nence, that all those whose desire it is to see Great 

 Britain assert herself once more in the councils of the 

 East may congratulate themselves on the capable way 

 in which their interests in Persia are at the present 

 time being handled. No one whose lot has cast him 

 among the strange places of the East can fail to 

 have had brought home to him, as never before, the 

 real significance of the phrase, "the heart and fibre 



K 



