"مسألة الشرق الأوسط أو بعض المشكلات السياسية المتعلقة بدفاع الهند" [و‎‎٤‎٠] (٦١٦/٨٤)

CHAPTER VI
RUSSIAN ASCENDENCY IN TEHERAN: THE
POWER OF THE PURSE
BESIDES the power of the sword Russia wields at
the present moment in Teheran with at least equal
might the power of the purse. The methods by which
she has acquired it are similar to those which she has
employed with so much success in China, and they
aptly illustrate the intimate connection which exists
between the Far Eastern and the Middle Eastern ques
tions. The activity of Russian diplomacy in Teheran
during the last few years has constantly kept time with,
and in many instances assumed exactly the same shape
as, the activity which it has displayed during the same
period in Peking. In both cases its guiding principles
are the same, namely, that by bolstering up a weak
and corrupt Oriental monarchy, and securing its com
plete subserviency by a judicious combination of force
ful pressure and pecuniary suasion, the ends of Russian
policy can be, perhaps more slowly, but more surely
attained, and at infinitely less cost and risk than by
open and violent aggression. Nothing can be more
instructive than the way in which history has been
repeating, or rather duplicating, itself in Peking and in
Teheran.
In Peking the first manifestation of the ascendency
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