File 523/1912 Pt 1 'Persia: Imperial Bank: mint contract' [‎180r] (355/386)

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty’s Govern™g^]
PERSIA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[February 8.J
Section 4.
[5527] No. 1.
Sir G. Buchanan to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received February 8.)
(No. 39.)
Sir, St. Petersburgh, February b, 1912.
THE ‘ Novoe Vremya” of the 4th February publishes a letter from Tehran,
dated the 24th January, signed “ Elm,” and directed against Mr. Shuster. The writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. ,
after formulating all the old grievances against Mr. Snuster, his aggressive personality,
his lack of tact, his disregard of established Persian customs, &c., makes a sarcastic
allusion to Mr. Shuster’s boasted magnanimity in renouncing the two and a-half years
salary due to him from the Persian Government. The writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. avers that while
Mr. Shuster was talking grandiloquently of his self-denial in this respect, he was at the
same time pocketing a sum of 61,000 roubles, which the Imperial Bank of Persia paid
to him in his capacity of treasurer-general when he no longer filled that office. This
sum is alleged to have been paid by Mr. Wood to Mr. Shuster, in order to secure the
extension for ten years of the right enjoyed by the bank to import silver for minting
purposes. The extension of this right for one year was secured last year with the
consent of the Medjliss and the observance of all proper formalities, but now Messrs.
Shuster and Wood have dispensed with all such troublesome restriptions.
The writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. goes on to say that, from a legal point of view, this transaction
constitutes a punishable “ abuse and breach of trust,” while from the political point of
view, it is a direct infraction of articles 1 and 2 of the Anglo-Russian Agreement, and
subversive of the interests of the Russian bank. Sir G. Barclay himself in private
conversation has gone so far as to say : C’est un abus. The letter finally points out
that while Mr. Shuster has decamped and cannot be proceeded against, his accomplice,
Mr. Wood, is a British subject and is still in Tehran.
I ri QATP
GEORGE W. BUCHANAN.
[2358 h —4]