File 523/1912 Pt 1 'Persia: Imperial Bank: mint contract' [‎77r] (149/386)

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of our special claims in this matter wa.s solely in view
of oui note issue hut that the Banque d’Escompte had no
such basis on which to claim a similar privilece and
also that the Persian Government had passed a law
reserving to themselves the right of importing and coining
silver."
Por this reason we cannot hut consider Mr. Wood's
attitude in this matter as entirely unwarranted by our
preceding negotiations. It must be quite evident to you
that we could merely promise not to raise any objections
to the exercising of such a right by your Bank.
Returning to the above-mentioned clause which Mr.
Wood has taken exception to, we would like you to under
stand that it was kept in the draft of the new contract
solely because it already existed in the Schuster
Contract drawn up by your Bank, and this seemed to prove
that it entirely tallied with your concessionary rights.
Although your right to import silver for covering the out
standing banknotes is based, according to your own state
ment, on the concession granted you in 1889 by the Persian
Government, and should therefore be entirely independent
of any later laws’ or stipulations, we nevertheless would
not object to the clause in question being excluded from
the contract, as far as our Bank is concerned, but we most
emphatically decline any responsibility for the a.ttitude r
f
which the Persian Government may take in case of such l
exclusion, and should it prove a stumbling block to the
whole of the contract we would, to our great regret, have
no choice but to forego the agreement arrived at with you
in February 1914 in London.
Thirdly Our Manager in Teheran deemed it prudent to
insert into the draft of the new contract a clause giving
the