'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎605] (672/714)

THE ARMY
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octogenarian veteran, no mean type of the system wliich prevails
through the entire hierarchy from general to ensign. Patronage
and promotion in a regiment are in the hands of the colonel, who
makes such a good thing out of the distribution, that the goodwill,
so to speak, of his post is a marketable commodity, like that of a
public-house in England, and has to be purchased for a fixed sum
upon appointment. He sells commissions to his subordinate officers,
he sells exemptions from service and discharges to the private
soldier, he makes his mudakhil out of the rations and pay, and he
frequently only advances a portion of the latter, subject to a
usurious discount. Cases are well known of men being appointed
generals or colonels whose whole life has been spent in civilian
avocations, and, when a regiment is raised, it not infrequently
happens that of the officers not one has ever worn a uniform or
attended a drill. To obtain the higher commands large sums, vary-
ingfrom200Lto 7001. or even 1,0001., are paid by the would-be
or serhangs. If the superior ranks are more commonly filled by
men of good family, frequently, as I have pointed out, by hereditary
descent, the lower grades of commissioned officers, from the yawar
or major downwards, are drawn from the middle and lower classes,
and occupy no social position whatsoever. Finally, it may be said
of the Persian officer, that on the battle-field he suffers from an in
eradicable disposition to run.
It should be said, however, in justice to the Shah and his
son, the Naib-es-Sultaneh, that efforts have been made by both to
Royal turn out, by means of properly organised instruction.
College superior body of officers to that which has hitherto
existed. The Royal College, which was started by the present
sovereign soon after his accession, somewhat upon the model ot a
French lycee, and which I visited and have described, contains a
military department, where, under the instruction of two Prussian
officers, military science is taught. I found thirty pupils in the
Artillery, and forty-five in the Infantry class.
Not satisfied with this establishment, or anxious to emulate it,
the Naib (who is Commander-in-Chief) started a separate military
Naib's college in 1885, which contains 150 pupils, and entails
CoHege an amma i charge upon the military budget of 10,000 to
12,000 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. . The curriculum is exclusively military, and the
design is to turn out an improved type of officer. There is not
the slightest necessity for two of these institutions, and there is
if