File 3852/1912 Pt 2 'Persia. Conditions in South Persia. German Documents' [‎247r] (125/280)

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his circular c 4 i
No. 237.
No, 98.
private letters, ffe
Stas, wrote taW
The Britisi &ri'*
^ondon and
about the general situation which prevents money being
obtained for the Gendarmerie, this means merely that the
usurious terms of the loans offered are too high for the Persian
Government to accept. The Swedish officers, many of them
men of private means, rightly think that the situation brought
about by the Anglo-Russian pressure on Persia, degrades
t%n to the role of mendicants, they threaten to resign, but
they are quieted by their own Government and Englands’
promise to put the finances of the Gendarmerie on a sound basis.
England had now arrived at the point for which she had
been striving. Exactly like the Persian Government itself
the Gendarmerie was stalled off with small advances (which
were chargeable to the Persian budget). The preliminary con
ditions for making the Persian Government a dependent were
obtained by undermining its authority quite systematically.
The Swedes were intended to help English ends and were
highly welcomed particular y as a counterpressure against
the Cossack Brigade. In fact in St. Petersburg plans were
discussed by England, the most powerful financiers of the
Gendarmerie, for the entire elimination of the Brigade. The
English minister informed the consular officials under his
orders by a confidential circular dated March 1914 that: “His
Majesty’s Government are negotiating about the Gendarmerie
at Petersburg with a view to their being employed throughout
Persia" and in the same circular the dispatch of a body of
1200 gendarmes and the extension of their activity in
Isfahan is referred to.
If the English diplomatists in Teheran had previously
acknowledged the excellent work of the Swedes, the English
Consul General at Isfahan, Grahame, gave them a brilliant
testimonial on the occasion of a journey from Bushire to
Isfahan, the most noteworthy passages of which may be quoted
here. In a letter adressed by Grahame to the English minister
and dated December 25 th , 1914, he says: “It is scarcely too
much to say that the Bushire-Shiraz-Isfahan road is now
the Gendarmerie, so completely has that force overshadowed
the road, absorbing or dissipating all other elements
The feelings of the men towards their Swedish officers appeared
to be universally good (Major Lundberg in the Kaseroon and