258 A VISIT TO PERSIA. 
by his fellow villagers is about the only money he is likely to handle 
during his service and that if he is not actually to starve, he must live 
as best he can on this sum. He therefore puts it to the most profit- 
able uses he can devise and, as money-lending has always produced a 
high rate of interest, he adopts the profession of userer and loans out 
one kran here and another kran there, extorting two krans in return 
for each one lent. Money, although lent by the soldier at the 
exhorbitant rate of cent. per cent., is but seldom lost, for if the civilian 
borrower dares to repudiate his debt, his premises are at once invaded 
by the lender and other members of this military money-lending 
fraternity and the dishonest borrower sees at once that he will do well 
to continue regular repayments of the loan. 
It is not to be wondered that an army, raised and supported under 
these conditions, should be devoid of military spirit and that where 
promotion must be paid for and furloughs bought no form of sympathy 
or confidence can exist between officers and men. In spite of all these 
difficulties Persia possesses the natural material out of which a good 
army isto be raised. The men are of fine physique and the supply of 
horses, although they are small in size, is very great. The systems of 
travelling and communication throughout the country are such, that 
there are few men who cannot ride, and it was with such material that 
Nadir Shah was able in the last century to invade India with an army 
of which at least 50,000 were cavalry. ‘The number of horses in the 
country must, however, have considerably diminished since that time. 
Any Kuropean naticn that may ever be in a position to give itself a 
free hand in the raising of Persian troops will have material to deal 
with, out of which a valuable allied force could be made; time would, 
however, be required. ; 
European officers of every nationality have in turn been engaged by 
Persia to remodel her army, but in no instance have they been given a 
sufficiently free hand to carry through genuine reforms, probably the 
English officers were during their tenure of office allowed to do more 
for the good of the army than any others. A most complete account 
of the Persian army in the present and the past is given in the Right 
Hon. George Curzon’s work on Persia and to thoroughly understand 
the history and organization of the army and how its instruction has 
been taken in hand from time to time by foreign officers, the chapters 
devoted to the Persian army should be studied. 
Napoleon I. fully appreciated how great must be the military 
importance of Persia to any country holding possession of India, with 
the object therefore of weakening British influence in Asia and, in 
India in particular, a number of French officers were sent to Persia 
early in the present century to reorganize and instruct the Persian 
army and they may be considered as the first of a series of foreign 
instructors who have been successively entrusted with the instruction 
of the Persian army. ‘The stay of these French officers was short and, 
England becoming alive to the very great importance of preserving 
our influence in Persia, entered into negociations with the Shah, where- 
by the services of a few Indian officers were lent to the Persian 
