'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎170] (205/714)

170
PERSIA
have had any cause to be so represented in Meshed, are Great
Britain and Russia; and in both cases the appointment is quite
Foreign recent, and was effected under circumstances that had
Meshed in occmTecl a sll0rtl time before my visit, and are worthy of
narration. It was Russia who took the initiative in the
latter part of 1888. By the seventh article of the Akhal-Khorasan
Treaty of 1881, she was entitled to keep agents at the Persian
frontier-posts. 1 But there was no mention therein of a Consul or
Consul-General; Meshed could not possibly be described as a
frontier-post, or as even remotely concerned with the Turkoman
question; and the Shah was known to be particularly averse to
any such intrusion at the religious capital of Khorasan. Both
Russia and Great Britain had for long maintained native agents Non-British agents affiliated with the British Government.
at the latter place. But such British officers as had been specially
employed on political service in these regions, as, for instance,
General Maclean and Colonel Stewart, had been careful either to
reside elsewhere or to move from place to place, and had never
taken up permanent quarters in the capital, where they were
always assured that their residence would be attended with
personal risk.
Russia, however, had decided for some time that her interests
in Khorasan required direct and official representation in the city.
Appoint- Accordingly M. Vlassof, Russian Consul at Resht, and
vfasso/ M a widely known for his grasp of Persian
politics, was nominated Consul-General by the Czar, and
the Shah was informed that he must ratify the appointment. This
peremptory manner of proceeding was not calculated to soothe the
wounded feelings of the latter, and for some time the exsequatur
was withheld. Russia, however, is in a position on the north to
make it extremely dangerous for Persia to oppose any prolonged
or genuine resistance to whatever proposals she may threaten to
enforce, and accordingly, after a certain delay, the exsequatur was
granted, and in the spring of 1889 M. Vlassof was installed at
' ilie article is as follows : ' With a view to the observance and fulfilment of
the stipulations of the present Convention, and in order to regulate the proceed
ings of the Turkomans residing on the Persian frontier, the Government of His
Majesty the Emperor of All the Kussias shall have the right to nominate agents
to the frontier-posts of Persia. In all questions concerning the observance of
order and tranquillity in the districts contiguous to the possessions of the High
Contracting Parties, the appointed agents will act as intermediaries in the rela
tions between the Russian and Persian authorities.'