BRITISH PRESTIGE IN PERSIA. 333 



increased a hundredfold at the present day ; yet so far 

 from being now betrayed into any paroxysm of alarm, 

 . . . her proceedings fail even to excite our curiosity, 

 and we seem, as far as the public is concerned, to await 

 the threatened contact of the two empires with supreme 

 indifference." ^ 



One of the most gratifying symptoms in British policy 

 in recent times is perhaps the intimation that her 

 statesmen have at length realised the vital importance 

 of laying down and carrying out a definite policy in 

 matters relating to her Indian neighbours. British 

 prestige in Persia was at a low ebb when I first visited 

 that country in 1900 and 1901. We had been given 

 a great chance, but, with a singular failure to grasp 

 its real significance, we allowed it to pass to our rivals. 

 A combination of British narrowness and Russian in- 

 sistence, assisted, as I am well aware, by Persian 

 duplicity, placed the country financially — and finance 

 is the alpha and omega of Persian politics — under the 

 thumb of Bussia. Persia required money, and she 

 applied to England for a loan. English capitalists 

 were shy and held aloof, — they doubtless held vivid 

 memories of the shock administered to the London 

 market in 1890 in connection with the notorious "state 

 lotteries " concession, — and the Government, instead of 

 hailing with delight the chance they were actually 

 begged to accept, delayed. The policy of investing 

 money outside the empire was perhaps in the opinion 

 of pedantic professors contrary to the tenets of sound 

 economy, and the Foreign Office would accept as surety 

 nothing less than control of the customs by British 

 officials, a privilege which Persia was in no position to 

 concede. And so, baffled in her endeavour to raise 

 money in England, she turned to the only alternative 



1 England and Eussia in the East. 



