CHANGES IN PERSIA

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 53, 26 November 1930, Page 3

CHANGES IN PERSIA

Little Benefit Secured “Looking back through the years and remembering the contented outlook of the people, I cannot see that Persia has to any appreciable extent benefited by. .the changes that have come to pass,” remarked Mr. J. W. Borland, who recently settled in the Dominion after ten years’ service with the Imperial Bank of Persia, in addressing the members of the Wellington Rotary Club yesterday. . “Nowadays Persia has an air service, and her trade routes are threaded by motor vehicles, but 1 remember with pleasure the easy days when time was no object, and one jogged happily along astride a mule toward one’s destination, nobodv being a whit the worse for it. “Outwardly, the Persian is not the man he was. Gone are are flowing garments of mediaeval custom. Gone is the tinkling of the caravan beljs. Gone is the easy peace which wrapped the cities close at sunset. Nowadays, compelled by law, he clothes himself in the garments of the West, motor horns disturb the murmur of the bazaars, and gramophones in every coffee house make the night hideous with their wailings. Even some of the women arc risking ostracism by putting aside the veil. f'But is there any fundamental change? Has the Persian’s character really altered? Has his outlook adapted itself to the conditions under which he is now compelled to live? I do not believe that such is the case. Persia is masquerading. ! . . ' , “In. official circles, there is a noticeable change of attitude toward the foreigner, an aggressive, self-assertiveness born of a new national consciousness, which I hope will pass, and I believe it will, for there have already been signs that the British prestige is better than it was a year ago; but it is not so with the bulk of the people. They seemed to me to be ns friendly disposed as ever, and if you listen carefully you can hear whispers of dissatisfaction with present conditions, which sometimes develop> in to open criticism. The people are beguminS to understand they are poorer and more heavily taxed than they . u« S fy They suspect where this pohey of hasty development is driving the make “As 1 remains an enigma. on so much”