PERSIAN REVOLT.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 461, 20 March 1909, Page 5

PERSIAN REVOLT.

REBELS RULE AT BANDAR ABBAS. (DYTELEGRAPH-—PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYItIGHT.) (llec. March 19, 10.31 p.m.) Teheran, March 19. Persian Nationalists have deposed tho Governor and have assumed control of tho Customs at the Persian Gulf port of Bandar Abbas (an important seaport situated at the most northerly point of the Strait of Ormuz, and falling in tho Britsh sphere of influenco under tho Anglo-Russian Convention of 1507). THE SHAH AND THE NATIONALISTS. The year 1903 was marked in Persia by tho Shah's forcible suppression of the itew constitution granted by the last monarch on his death-bed, .January 1, 1907. The constitution involved the creation of a National Council (Mejliss). to be elected every two years, a senate (half elected and half nominated) and a caibinet of eight Ministers. By a later law (May, 1907) town and rural councils,' with a wide franchise, came into existence. The few months of the National Council's existence were troublous in the extreme, and the first Prime Minister was killed by a bomb. It was soon evident that the new Shall (Muliammed Ali), notwithstanding his formal ratification of the constitution, was not disposed to accept the new regime.- In December, 1907. a conflict arose over the question of'the Civil T.ist. the Shah yielding at the last moment to the Parliament's ultimatum. This victory appears to have led the Mejliss to overrate its strength, and tho following May it attempted to make 'an cud of the Court clique and again sent an-ultimatum to the Shah, who replied with a coup d'etat. The oity of Tehoran was dominated by the Persian Cossacks, who destroyed the Parliament House and many other buildings! Several leaders of the popular party wero shot down, or arrested, and afterwards tortured and executed. But tho Nationalists, though defeated in the capital, were strong in some of tho provinces, particularly in Azerbaiiau, the chief S™ of which, Tabriz, has been' held by tho Nationalist troops against the Shah ever since. The attitude of Britain towards the revolution was one of strict non-intervention. Sir i-dward Grey, howover, stated that if a general movoment on behalf of freedom and good government should take practical shape in Persia, it would lack no' sympathy from England! sineo then the flames of rovolt have been spreading, and now, it seems, the firo is being fed from without.