File 3852/1912 Pt 2 'Persia. Conditions in South Persia. German Documents' [‎234v] (100/280)

36
glad to have a Russian force at hand that could reach the
capital in three days”. 1 )
It need hardly be said that it was jealousy, not sympathy
for Persia, or respect for fairplay, that made England propose
the withdrawal of the Russian troops from Persia. It will
be proved later on how little England really troubled about
the agreement made with Russia in 1907. From the peru^l
of the Blue Books the impression is gained that England feared
the return of the Shah more than Persia did. For the Ex-shah
is pro-Russian.
England did not dream of withdrawing her own troops
from Southern Persia in spite of Persia’s repeated requests,
in spite of the attacks made on these troops 2 ), and of the
excitement among the warlike tribes of Ears. The English
minister made the withdrawal of these troops conditional on
the support which the gendarmerie under the command of
the Swedish officers would find 3 ).
In July 1912 there were collected in Tabriz alone 1500
Russian troops with artillery, although no state of war existed
in Persia and thousands more were stationed on different
points of Northern Persia. Every unfriendly act directed
against Russia, every local dispute was used by these troops
as a pretext for violating the local authorities concerned.
In Resht Russian troops destroyed the plant of the newspapers
and prohibited the latter. At Meshed there occurred in March
1912 an excess which was the culmination of these horrors
and produced an indescribably painful impression throughout
the Muslim world. 4 )
A priest together with his adherents had taken refuge in
the shrine of the Imam Riza and was therefore according to
the old Persian law, observed for centuries, inviolable. Even
England and Russia had appealed over and over again to
the validity of this old Persian tradition, which ranks as an
international agreement and of which they took advantage
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x ) English Blue Books Persia No. 5 (1912) No. 222. subjects, the E
2 ) For which handsome indemnities were extorted from Persia.These aaonj the Enroj
were deducted in the first place from the new loans. Persia No. 1
3 ) English Blue Books Persia No. 1 (1913) No. 39. ' %hsh Bine Boo]
4 ) Browne, Persian Press and Poetry, page 336. '^h Blue Boo