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49
passing their examinations would still have been ineligible to sit for Persian
Government examinations and still liable for conscription. There was, however,
considerable delay in the issue of the papers confirming this recognition, and it
was not until June that they reached Isfahan. Mr. Thompson, the principal of
the Stuart Memorial College, then discovered that the recognition applied to his
middle school only, and not to the primary school. Furthermore, the girls’ school
i^fifelsfahan was not recognised because the Principal, Miss Aidin, was a Persian
suoject. The Ministry of Education then explained that in the case of all non-
Government schools it was the Principal, and not the institution, that received
recognition, and that no Persian subject could be recognised as the Principal of
a foreign school. They indicated that the difficulty might be surmounted in this
particular case, but only for the middle school. The Persian Government
intended shortly, so Mr. Thompson was informed in confidence, to forbid all
foreign primary schools in Persia.
276. This prophecy proved correct, for in August a decree was issued
forbidding foreign schools to admit pupils, whether boys or girls, who were
Persian subjects. Mr. Thompson at once revisited Tehran, and in the course of
this and various subsequent visits, during which a number of devices were
considered, reached an agreement whereby the primary schools might be
maintained under the guise of preparatory classes attached to their middle
schools. The letter in which this arrangement was confirmed was dated the
3rd October, and stated that during the current year the Stuart Memorial College
might admit into the middle school boys who were already in the primary school
and had reached the fifth and sixth classes, even though not possessing primary
certificates; in addition, boys already in the middle school who did not possess
primary certificates might remain-there provided they passed the necessary
examination in two years. A similar arrangement was authorised for the girls’
middle school in Isfahan and for the boys’ middle school at Kerman. The schools
at Yezd and Shiraz had already been turned into Persian private schools under
Church Missionary Society workers who were Persian subjects (the connexion of
the Shiraz school with the society had, indeed, always been of a very tenuous
kind). The only difficulty arose over the girls’ school at Kerman, which had no
middle school, and consequently no way of disguising itself. The Principal,
Miss Woodrofie, was able, however, in the course of a visit to Tehran, to secure
permission to carry on until she went on leave in 1934.
277. There is little doubt that the decree was aimed largely, if not
exclusively, at the Soviet primary schools, of which there were a large number.
His Majesty’s Minister told the Minister for Foreign Affairs that he considered
the exchange of notes about missionary work attached to the Tariff Autonomy
Treaty of the 10th May, 1928, meant that the society’s schools then in existence
would be allowed to continue. The American Minister also made representations
to the Minister of Court. But in the end the missionaries arranged their
difficulties without further official support. The attitude of the Persian
authorities was definitely more friendly to the Church Missionary Society than to
the American missionaries, against whose methods of proselytisation the Minister
for Foreign Affairs inveighed in conversation with His Majesty’s Minister.
(E) Imperial Airways.
Political.
278. The negotiations for the continued use of the South Persian coast
route after the 31st March are inextricably mixed up with the general treaty
negotiations, and are described in the section on those negotiations. A
provisional extension until the 31st May was obtained in February, and before
it expired His Majesty’s Government had decided to withdraw to the Arab coast
of their own accord; a formal communication in this sense was made to the
Persian Government, in confirmation of an oral message, on the 26th May. This
communication asked for a temporary and final extension until the 1st October,
and stated that His Majesty’s Government did not consider themselves debarred,
by their decision to withdraw of their own accord, from claiming most-favoured
nation treatment on behalf of Imperial Airways in respect of any facilities
accorded to other air companies in the future, or from inviting the Persian
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