File 3852/1912 Pt 2 'Persia. Conditions in South Persia. German Documents' [‎286v] (204/280)

140
cers may be, we cannot afford to let the Gendarmery go to
pieces through want of money and besides provision of funds
gives us certain standing in all questions connected with the
force....
Addressed Tehran 38 repeated Bushire 26
Letter from the English Minister, Sir Walter Townley,
to the Consul in Shiraz, Major O’Connor. April yth, i 9 i 5 .
My dear O’Connor,
Well, my time in Persia is coming rapidly to an end
and in a little more than a week I turn my face homeward
and the so-called land of the Rose will see me no more. I am
going home on leave granted me in most encouraging language,
but without my having asked for it, and because Korostovetz
and I could not hit it off. Who could hit it off with poor old
Korostovetz? Anyhow I am going and of course I have no
intention of ever returning though I am nominally going on
leave. I have been expecting this termination to my sojourn
in Persia for some time, almost ever since I am here, because
I felt sure that our friends on the banks of the Neva would
get tired of somebody who would not sit down and see them
quietly absorb all Persia. Azerbaijan was bad enough but
not nearly sufficient for the Muscovite appetite, and after
having a good bite at Isfahan the scheme was in course of
elaboration to lay hands on Pars through the same channel
as they had tried to incorporate Isfahan in their sphere of
complete control. The only thing to do to check them was
to carry the war into their own stronghold, Azerbaijan, to
make them hold their hand in the centre and south. This I
did to some purpose and got them much on the raw by showing
Private
British Legation
Tehran
April 7. 1915.