'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎119v] (243/610)

Belgians are employed (1920), and the Customs under their
management are the principal reliable source of revenue of the
Persian Government. M. Molitor is the Director.
In 1911 Mr. Shuster, an American, was appointed to reform
the Finances of Persia. He brought a small staff of American
assistants, and was entrusted with very wide powers by a vote
of the Majlis until dismissed after 8 months, in compliance
with a Russian ultimatum to Persia.
He was succeeded by M. Mornard, a Belgian, and Belgian
Customs officials in the provinces were given charge of the
Finances in addition to the Customs, until 1916 when the Finan
cial administration was finally withdrawn from Belgian control.
Frenchmen are employed as instructors in the Dar-ul-Funun.
The full complement is 10, comprising 5 for Law, 1 for Medicine, 1 for
Surgery, 1 for Physics, 1 for Mathematics, and 1 for Biology. The Dar-ul-Funun
(Abode of Learning), or Ecole Polytechnique, was founded in Tehran by AS sir-
ud-Din Shah. Faculties of Law and Medicine have been subsequent additions.
A graduate of the school has attained a standard of education equivalent to that
of an Indian Secondary School. There are some 400 pupils of about 13 to 18
years of age. Admittance is by entrance examination, and no fees are charged
except perhaps a ‘ douceur ' for the examiners. The Faculties of Law and
Medicine have a 5 years’ course. Each is attended by some 60 students who have
graduated from the school. The Medical School is mentioned in para. 69 of the
report of the Anglo-Persian Military Commission, 1920. “ Students undergo a
five years’ course of purely theoretical instruction, yhere is no dissection,
histology, bacteri 1 gy, or regular classes of clinical medicine. In short, at the
end of his 5 vears’ study, the student has no practical Knowledge or experience.”
Add to this the lectures in Law and Medicine are all id French, and only partly
intelligble to the audience.
Mr. Hew, of the Indo-European Telegraph Department,
is employed in the Persian Telegraph Administration, and
M. Molitor, a brother cf the Director of Customs, is Director
of the Postal Services. The staffs of these departments are
all Persian and Arroeman. The relation of foreign advisers
and officials in a Persian Department to its Ministerial chief
is difficult, as, unless entrusted with wide eve utive powers,
their work is thwarted, and they are subjected to various petty
annoyances, and on the other hand a Persian Minister, how
ever, incompetent, is not resigned to become a figure head, take
his salary, and abandon ‘Mudakhil.’
The official classes of Persians have grown so accustomed
in the past to obtain money without effort from Great Britain,
Russia, and 1 Germany, that puffed up with an exaggerated
idea of the importance of their country to these foreign powers
they cannot, or will not, realize this source of supply will fail
in the future, and a continuation of their darling policy of
1 i. e. By German bribes which were freely administered during the war.
The Persian Government never received any loan from Germany,