'Minutes memos despatches etc' [‎60v] (120/156)

2
I had not sufficient information about the position and prospects of the Azerbaijan
Government to offer any remarks upon this proposal.
Lastly, the Minister, with marked trepidation, opened to me the question of the
possible grant of the Garter to the Shah on the occasion of his approaching visit to this
country. He argued that the Shah, whose grandfather and great-grandfather had
received the same decoration, would be placed in an invidious and humiliating position
if he were not similarly honoured, particularly on the morrow of the conclusion of the
Anglo-Persian Agreement. It would hardly be worth his while to visit this country if
the Order were not to be bestowed, and the Minister’s own position would be gravely
jeopardised if he did not succeed in procuring the Garter for his Sovereign.
I said that the bestowal of this Order was not a matter for me or for any Depart
ment of the Government. It involved the prerogative of the Sovereign, and I had no
right to express a definite opinion upon the matter without knowing what views were
likely to be entertained at the Court. I felt, however, that the Minister was hardly *
well-advised in putting the case in the way he had, and he must not be surprised if
objections were entertained which it might not be easy to overcome. For instance, I
said the two previous Shahs who had received this honour had, as he knew, received it
only after considerable difficulty. They were men in the prime of life, one at least of
whom was a great Sovereign, and had been for many years upon the throne. The
feeling was strong in some quarters that the Garter was a decoration that should be as
far as possible confined to Christian monarchs, and if this rule had on occasions been
departed from it was only because a justification was found in the special conditions of
the cases concerned. The present Shah was a young man, only 2] years of age, who
had attained to the throne by the accident of the expulsion of his father. He had not
yet had an opportunity of showing the metal of which he was made. This was his first
visit to Lurope ; the ink was barely dry upon the agreement which had just been
concluded between us; and it seemed to me a rather strong order if His Majesty
expected in these circumstances that he should receive as a matter of right the honour
which had on previous occasions been conferred only in such different circumstances.
I went on to say that I thought the position might very well be taken that it
would be more appropriate to raise the question of this decoration when the Shah again
visited these shores, when the Anglo-Persian Agreement had justified itself by its
success, and when the Shah had had the opportunity, by his conduct on his return to
Persia, of showing that he was loyal to the agreement and had by his action contributed
to its success. None of these conditions existed at the present moment, and although I
was speaking for myself only in making these observations, I felt that it was only right
to point out to his Highness that the road might not be altogether smooth.
I am, &c.
CURZON OF KEDLESTON.