330 THE NEAR EAST. 



Persia. 



The Persian question is by no means a new one. 

 It has been in a state varying from comparative 

 quiescence to feverish activity for more than a cen- 

 tury, and receives spasmodic recognition from the 

 British pubhc. The Shah indulges in a meteoric 

 trip to Europe, and the world is all agog to cast a 

 curious eye upon the " King of kings," and to learn 

 something about what it hastily christens the " Per- 

 sian problem." With his departure public interest 

 ebbs, and except when some more than usually un- 

 abashed violation of Persian territory or Persian 

 prerogatives is perpetrated by her northern neigh- 

 bour, which excites an ephemeral indignation in the 

 British press, the crooked course of Persian progress 

 is relegated willingly enough to the cabinets of 

 statesmen and the chancellories of diplomatists. 

 None the less is the path of Persian progress a diffi- 

 cult and thorny way, for Persia, like China, is being 

 irresistibly swept into the swirling vortex of world 

 movement. 



Generally speaking, the position of Persia as re- 

 gards England and Russia closely resembles that of 

 Turkey, for Persia is the second of those countries 

 with regard to which our policy has been " the 

 maintenance of our predominant influence and the 

 prevention of the expansion of hostile agencies," And 

 it is all the more important from the fact that not 

 only would a hostile Power in possession of Persia 

 be disastrous to British and Indian trade with that 

 country, but it would also render nugatory to some 

 extent the advantao^es which accrue to us from our 

 supremacy in the Persian Gulf, and would turn the 



