GERMAN CONSPIRACY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16096, 9 December 1915, Page 6

GERMAN CONSPIRACY.

GOLD AND ARMS. • ABUSE OF CONSULATES. j Times and Sydney Sun Services. J London, December 7. ] The Persian correspondent of the London Times writes —" Germany paved the way for her intrigue in Persia by installing commercial agents in the ports and Consulates throughout the country. German agents, who professed to be scientific and travelling enthusiasts, enjoyed the hospitality of the British Consulates, while they were really paid agents aiming at the destruction of \ British influence. Shortly before • the war German Consulates were J opened with many well-armed retain- * ers. Oriental dare-devils brought 1 from villages were pressed into { service and armed after the war * broke out, and many German and t Austrian officers were collected at < the Consulate at Ispahan. They 3 brought gold, ammunition and ] machine-guns, and tried with varying fortune to get in caravans of gold and arms. Wireless plants I were installed, and German war bulletins were issued everywhere. The Persians were impressed with the lavish outlay of money and the display of German arms. " The Persian Government demanded the destruction of wireless installations, and the disarming of retainers, but the Germans temporised. In September a British Consul was shot, but the gendarmerie did not act. Warnings were given that no British life was safe, and the whole colony, including the occupants of the school, hospitals, and the banks, travelled by caravan for 19 days m terrible heat to the Persian Gulf, the Germans being left supreme. The British Consul called m on a _ friendly chieftaS and as astonished to find the Ispahan representative of the Ger>g|W» to \ ac ™- Th ere could have MM been no better illustration of GerJV m fys policy. .No stone was left |j|w. unturned to gam her ends."