Coll 29/28 'Meshed: office allowance and consulate buildings' [‎112r] (225/343)

with Mr.Mullick it transpired that in view of certain alter
ations to the roads outside this Consulate which are now oeing
detract from the market value of these grounds, Mr.Ifulliek
able -- objection to the proposal put forward by my predecessor
lies in the fact that the transaction would appear to be of
more than doubtful legality according to Persian law. In
paragraph 5 of his despatch No.823 of the 18th November 192/ ,
Col. Biscoe states, correctly - ) that the present site of tnis
Cons 1 ulate-General is owned outright by Government. He goes on
to say "we are free to dispose of it in any manner we please;
and the method of disposal sanctioned by the Government of
India was that after the new Consulate had been constructed,
the existing site and the buildings) as they stand, should oe
handed over to Mr. Mullick who would sell them as and when he
found purchasers. It seems to have escaped Col. Biscoe’s
notice that under Persian Law no foreigner is allowed to possess!
any land except for his private residence or for the transac
tion of his business. Some fiction might possibly be invented
been known to everybody that Mr. Mullick had taken over this
large compound and all these buildings not as private or business
premises but as a speculative investment to sell at a proiit.
In these circumstances it is almost certain that any sale
the Persian authorities. .Ve are not free in fact to dispose
of these buildings in the manner proposed. We could only get
rid of them by transfer to a Persian subject which is a
totally different proposition from the one put forward by Col.
Biscoe and contemplated by Mr. Mullick.
is more to be said. The chief reason advanced by Col. Biscoe
carried out by the Meshed Municipality and wnich are lixely to
might be compelled to reduce the amount he would be prepared to
from
lay out/Ts.68,000 to 67,000 or even 66,000.
4 . But the chief -- and, as it seems to me, an unanswer
to get round the law as it stands but the plain fact would have
-> 1 fc.fr. Tfriil 1 i Mr Viorj Vp ri nvpr this
effected by Mr. Mullick would have been declared invalid by
This would seem to dispose of the matter. But there
for