PERSIAN AFFAIRS

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14768, 6 October 1921, Page 4

PERSIAN AFFAIRS

Recent advices from Persia announce the discovery of a plot at Teheran to murder the Prime Minister and the Minister of War, and state that a member of the Ministry who is implicated is taking refuge with the Shah at his summer palace. Such a message is typical enough of the news we get respecting the chaotic affairs of a State which seems quite incapable of shaping a course for safety. They tire very quickly of their Prime Minister at Teheran. Among British statesmen none speaks witli higher authority regarding Persia's affairs than Lord Curzon, and his recent speech on the subject in the House of Lords was highly illuminating. Prime Minister had succeeded Prime Minister, he observed, with almost bewildering rapidity, and there were almost as many Persian policies as there were Prime Ministers. One week the policy would be that of abandoning the Anglo-Per-sian Agreement, but still keeping in touch with the British and getting as much out of them as possible. Another week the policy would be that of breaking with the British, but getting Swedes, and Frenchmen, and Americans to interest themselves in the administration. In a third week, continued Lord Curzon, we were confronted with a complete subjection to Soviet force. As an interlude in this drama •one of the Prime Ministers amused liimsclf by putting into prison all his political opponents. It was in the midst of this perplexing jumble of events that the Soviet Minister, Goldstein, appeared upon the scene at Teheran, in circumstances of show and self-adver-tisement, and there has pursued the familiar Bolshevist methods—the exercise of a ceaseless political propaganda, and the promise, if not the payment, of money to those whose support he has been soliciting, while always in the" background there lias been the presence of Russian forces. Within the past few days the Soviet Government, replying to a Note front Lord Curzon, has expressed its previous conviction that there is no foundation for complaints that the Bolshevists are engaged in anti-British propaganda in India and the neighbouring countries in contravention of the trade agrccmcfit between Great Britain and Russia, but has promised to make fresh inquiry into the matter. It is to be feared that its assurances in this connection do not count for much. As for Persia, it is true that it is mainly her own affair if she trifles with the opportunities for securing her independence ami integrity, but her attitude is certainly disappointing to the British Government, which throughout a trying period has done everything possible to re-establish, strengthen, and guarantee the future existence of the Persian nation. Lord Curzon has had to confess that, judging by present appearances, the labours of Great Britain have been largely in vain. The Persian Government seems to have deliberately rejected the choice of recovering its fortunes with British aid. It has preferred to fall back on the familiar game of playing off one foreign country with another. In the last resort it appears to be not unwilling to accept the kind of salvation that comes from Moscow. The consequences will be upon its own head, and the main sufferer will of course be Persia herself. In view cf his personal efforts in the direction of the policy of the British Foreign Oflice in relation to Persia it is small wonder perhaps that Lord Curzon should have expressed himself to t>c Lords as regarding the situation with dasappointineiil, and almost with despair. "The picture I have drawn," he said in conclusion, "has been a picture of a country with a great and historic past, a country for which we have had the warmest sympathy, for which we have made countless sacrifices, upon which we have spent millions of money since the beginning of the war, but, it, is a country now marching of its own accord towards an end which I do not attempt to forecast, but which I think cannot be otherwise than most unfortunate. I wish I could have given a more sanguine estimate of the situation. Of all the. speeches I have ever had to make on Persia this has been' the one which 1 have made with the greatest regret."