THE FAMINE IN PERSIA.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVII, Issue 3398, 17 January 1872, Page 3

THE FAMINE IN PERSIA.

. .«. [From tho Sr-ECT&TOii, October 281h.] We greatly doubt whether the people of this country, even those who have noticed the statements upon the subject, have any idea of tho present state (if affairs in Persia. Sir Henry Rawlinson has told them something, but he was obviously afraid of overcharging his picture, and alienating sympathy by apparent exaggeration. Knowing Persia, too.be was, we imagine from bis speech at tbe Mansion honse, entirely unaware of a curious difficulty in his way, an intellectual severance between bis knowledge and tbat of bis audience.. He thinks of Persia as an immense country of mountain, and desert, and prairie, unirrigated by man, and insufficiently watered by nature ; witb comparatively few trees and no deltas defended from drought as it were by Heaven, full of vast arid plains which with water would yield like Lincolnshire, but without it are about as culturable as the Place de la Concorde ; the wbole occupied by about two millions of a brave and intellectual, but idle and vicious, race of artisans and cultivators, far below tbe Neapolitans, whom of all Europeans tbey most resemble, — Mohommedans penetrated at once wilh fatalism and with tbat dreadful Sufee infedelity, tbe infedelity whicb, recognising alike God and good, holds that neither has any moral obligation ; and with about 2,000,000 of pastoral nomads, socially on a level with tbe Bedouins, morally, we believe, below them. To most of Sir Henry's audience at tbe Mansion bouse, on tbe contrary, tbe word " Persia" calls up tbe idea of a grand Oriental empire, full of serai-civilised people and of wealth, with a Government despotic and oppressive perhaps, | but energetic, efficient, and full of resources, a Government in all but probity not unlike that of India. In reality, tbe feeble, scattered, and decaying population of weary voluptuaries, cowed peasants, and savage herdsmen, is ruled by perhaps the worst Government, the one most inefficient for good, wbich ever afflicted mankind — by a clan of despotic satraps, wbo, because they are kinsmen of tbe Eoyal House, are exempt even from the ordinary Asiatic check on mis-government — assassination by an indignant monarch or an outraged mob. There will come no belp from tbem, even if they could give any.; and if Persia bas really been struck, as now seems certain, by tbat most horrible of scourges, a culminating famine, a famine increasing through three successiveyears — a famine like tbat of Orissa, or of Rajpootana, or tbe great famine of Nortb India, a famine of forage as well as cereals, words will not suffice to describe tbe extent of a calamity wbicb, if it lasts another year — and tbe time bas passed for rain 7-may almost blot Persia out of tbe nations, finally paralyse ber for resistance to the power always closing round her throat. Sir Henry Rawlinson states only what he knows, but what he states with reserve wben carefully read indicates a calamity worse than that wbicb crushed Orissa. Tbe Eelyat or Bedouin tribes wbo make up so large a portion of tbe population of Persia, a population smaller tban tbat of Belgium, and more scattered and isolated in many districts than tbat of Northern Sweden, have been fighting for three years against continuous drought, until at last forage is unprocurable, and tbeir stock bas perished. It is difficult to imagine under such circumstances how tbey could be saved, even if tbe Persian Government were as strong as that of India. The clans cannot belp each other, for all are stricken alike. Tbey cannot march to more fertile pastures, for tbe drought bas desolated tbe wbole pastoral country, and if they wander beyond it tbey will be treated as enemies, even if there exist means to feed tbem beyond tbe frontier. Besides, tbeir means of locomotion — that is, of travelling hundreds of miles through dried' up plains — must bave failed them, and tbe only course visible to themselves will be to practice tbe resignation wbich in extreme moments never fails a Mohammedan, to live on less than will keep tbem alive, and await calmly either relief or death. Tbey are doing this in known places, and what tbeir fate must be in the encampments whence news never reaches Europe or even India, in tbe more arid plains and tbe dry valleys in the bills, it is ghastly even to conjecture. Help,

if it comes at all, must come from without, and as Sir Henry Rawlinson hinted, that help is, humanly speaking, noarly impossible. The Indian Government, with its wealth and organisation, if stirred to a desperate effort, an effort like that required for the invasion of 1850-57, might save the tribes near the coast, but the Indian Government is not responsible for Persia, is overburdened, and would i be utterly distrusted by the statesmen of | Teheran. These statesmen can do almost nothing. Money isworth'esseven if tbey j had it, and tbey baveno supplies to send. They have no granaries stored for years such as the Indian princes used to keep before communication improved, no means of transport such as nature and the British conquerors bave provided for India. They have no storehouse like Bengal, where the only danger is flood, where, when tbe rest of the continent is frying for want of water, the rice accumulates till tbo granaries burst. The conveyance of forago to tho dying Bedouins is simply impossible, for the pack animals marching through blighted provinces would eat more tban tbey could carry, and except beasts of burden there are no means of conveyance. There are no roads, no rivers, no railways, nocanuls, no means of transporting caravans of food. Au Eelyat encampment with its horses dead must be like an encampment in a ruined planet, isolated from the belp of all sentient beings. Tho ••' cities" might ray out supplies to certain limited distances ; but with one exception, a city in Persia is a collection of bouses tenanted by people wilb less power to help tban one of our large northern villages would in extremity exhibit, with one year's store of grain at most, and no accumulated wealth whatever. Besides, tbe famine must bave extended to the cities. The inhabitants of tbe plains witbin any possible marching distance will of course have poured into them, and the worst stories of suffering come frum them, from Teheran, and Tabrcez, and Bushire, tbe last, the richest, and most accessible place in Persia. If the people in Bushire arc dying daily ; if in Isbpahan, under tbe shadow of tbe Court, 12,000 are known to bave perished ; if in Kazeroon out of 10,000 people only 2000 remain — and all these statements can be surpassed from the official records ot Orissa — there is visibly no belp to be hoped for from Persia itself. The Persian Minister, as in duty bound, says the Shab gives all be can ; but though, we dare say, be orders food and is plundered to pay for it, sympathy is an undeveloped virtue in tbe East, and tbe officials will acce-pt tbe famine as they would a Hood, and think they have done much wben tbey bave remitted the State taxes. The famine, however, is not at an end. Not a hint is given in any of the speeches of Wednesday, not even in tbe optimist one u tiered by the Minister, of any proximate diminution of distress, nor do we perceive any immediate or indeed approaching reason for hope. The forage may revive next year, but it will be three before tbe flocks and herds can be renewed, and one before much grain can be ready for consumption. For months everything must be imported, as tbere is nothing to export in return, no hoarded wealth and no means of transport on any adequate scale, tbe future looks black indeed. Whether Sir Henry Rawlinson used the phrase " a doomed country" advisedly we do not know, bufc that phrase conveys exactly the apprehension which the recent history of Persia and the suggestions as to this famine leave upon our minds. A Government bad and effele, but too strong to be shaken off, cities ruined by tyranny and taxation, a people declining in number, and a soil devastated by droughts, Persia seems to us to be a great and tempting prey to any power with the inclination to terminate her independence.