File 3852/1912 Pt 2 'Persia. Conditions in South Persia. German Documents' [‎252r] (135/280)

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pay, although much had been spent lately lor other purposes.
“It must be well known to the Treasury, that the Gendarmerie
was legally guaranteed the receipt of the money required by
it before the police and other institutions were paid “
This letter concludes: “as however our financial position
is becoming more difficult every day and although the Treasury
not do its duty in spite of everything to that part of the
administration of our country which is called the gendarmerie,
it will be my first duty to tell my subordinates, and the people
whose security depends upon the gendarmerie, about the hostile
attitude of the Treasury and in order to avoid misunderstandings
to give them also the names of the persons who work against
the Persian interests/'
Pravitz, a level-headed officer, who had been called by
the British Consul “a sensible man who confines himself to his
work“ was brought to this by the creatures of Belgium and
Russia. The latter, who were in Persian service, drew their
pay from Persia and had it attested in writing that they were
working against the interests of Persia.
Indeed, the Treasury at Shiraz refused at last to receive
calls from the officers about their backpay. When Captain
Oertengren thereupon addressed violent reproaches to the
Financial Comptroller at Shiraz, the British Consul at Shiraz
demanded the recall of Oertengren in a letter flaming with
indignation which culminated in an insult to the whole Swedish
nation. The passage runs: "Captain Oertengren, who is an
officer of anunusually inferior type even for a Swede “
This sad chapter of English chivalry towards a staff of
deserving officers, whom the English minister would have been
only too pleased to treat to a kick (Townley put it more
delicately by using the expression a “coup de pied“) as a re
cognition of their professional achievements, which had been
appreciated by all Persians and even by the English, could not
close more suitably than with the resume of the English minister
Sir Walter Townley on the occasion of his leaving his post in
April 1915 :
"The Swedes, probably because they are pro-German,
have become the darlings of the Persian people and can do