'SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS AND MEASURES OF THE VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON, VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. I. JANUARY 1899-APRIL 1904. II. DECEMBER 1904-NOVEMBER 1905. VOLUME IV. PERSIA AND THE PERSIAN GULF.' [‎151r] (306/386)

(1) The point blank refusal of His Majesty the Shah himself, who
V ; instructed the Ala-ed-Powleh on no account to call upon me in
the British Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , but to insist upon the visit being paid in
a Persian bouse (to be hastily provided at the last moment) and
the extreme discourtesy with which Mr. Grant Dull’ appears to
have been treated at Tehran, where the Ministers affected indis
position and declined to see him, sufficiently showed that thG^was
no accidental misconception, but that the Shah and his Gov
ernment desired to impose upon me an intentional slight.
Sir A. Hardinge and 1 jointly felt that, having taken our stand
on the question of principle, it was impossible for us without a
serious sacrifice of dignity to give way, and although at his
suggestion I offered as a final compromise, to occupy the new
house for the day on shore, while receiving the Ala-ed-DowlelPs
official call in the Rcsidency—a compromise which w T as rejected
by the latter—the matter from the moment that the Shahs
orders arrived was in reality at an end. That the object of the
Persians was to place the Governor-General of India in a position
of inferiority to the Governor-General of Pars, and rested upon
no substantial ground of principle, was shown by the Ala-ed-
Powleh’s willingness to call upon me at the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , if only 1
would call upon him to drink tea at bis house on the way (so
that the first visit, virile nominally paid by him, should mreality
be paid by me), and by bis offer to proceed to the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. to
return the call of the Admiral.
I do not think that any of these difficulties would have occurred, or at any
rate I am confident that they would have been overcome, had Sir A. Hardinge
been at Tehran, or had he even been at Bushire for a few days before my
arrival, or had my stay at Bushire lasted for a longer time. I could not,
however, lie at anchor day after day, holding no communication with the shore,
on the off chance that the Shah miirlit adopt a more courteous attitude ; and
after two days of ineffectual negotiations I had no alternative but to depart.
It seemed undubitable both to Sir A. Hardinge and myself that influences
had been at work at Tehran which directly tended to produce tins result.
The progress which I had hem making round the ca " n ° t . lia ' e T1 s g®?
unmixed pleasure in all quarters; and the remark which the Ala-ed-Dowleh
blurted out in conversation to Colonel Kemball that he was not going to he
treated like an Arab Stieikh, indicated what was passing in the Persians mind.
His point of view was also indicated by his suggestion to Sir A. II idi n
that he might be willing to call unon me at the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , if he ^
required to meet me at the landing place. Indeed it was obvious t at
local desire was to show that the Governor-General ot India was an i 1 i
personage to the Governor-General of Pars. I may mention that the Ala-ed-
Howleii was also guilty of grave discourtesy to the British Admiral,
latter duly paid him an official visit ashore at which he appears to have been
treated with very scant courtesy. When the Admiral enquired w hen he might
expect the return visit, the Aia-ed-Dowleh at first suggested that it should be
paid at the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , but upon the Admiral pointing out that residenc
was his ship, the Ala-ed-Dowleh undertook to return the T1 ? lt th ® ,
cinth” on the following day. This promise ho never fulfilled and the
Admiral informed me that lie intended to report to the Admiralty an act o
incivility which had never previously occurred in his experience.
I am more inclined, however, to think that the real source of mischief
lay at Tehran : and I am disposed to associate the curt a titude f ’ f th ® t
and his Ministers with the recent communication made to ‘ ' e “ 0 " t _ U 3 S J
of the Hashmat-ul-Mulk and Seistan by Mr. Graffi; u . , Maskat
the Marquess of Lansdowne. When Str A. Ilardinge a ® d . I at Maskat
that Mr Grant Duff’s first representation on the subject, uhich bad be_
favourably received by the Mushir-ed-Dowleh was to be
ing to the Shah, we felt that difficulty might be raised m connection with the