ملف ٣٤٤٣/١٩١٤ الجزء ٢ "الحرب الألمانية: المبعوثون الألمان إلى أفغانستان" [ظ‎‎٦‎١] (٤٩٠/١٣١)

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on my colleague and myself, but with regard to the Germans he gives us
absolutely no news. His brother, who is at Yezd, is in all probability also our
secret enemy.
168
Telegram P., dated (and received) the 6th September 1915.
From— Lteutenant-Colonrl C. T. Ducat, His Britannic Majesty’s Consol,
Kerman,
T o—The Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign and Political Depart
ment, Simla.
Nothing to report to-day.
169
Telegram P., No. 114, dated the 2nd (received 3rd) September 1915.
From—His Britannic Majesty’s Minister, Tehran,
To—The Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign and Political Depart
ment, Simla.
Please refer to your telegram No. 241 regarding Bushire. Tins morning
I saw the Prime Minister. I said that as anticipated by me the solution he
had suggested could not be accepted by His Majesty’s Government, hut I was
glad to know that a proposal practically indentical with one I now brought
with me had been put forward by the Persian Minister in London.
The dismissal of the Governor-General of Pars as a necessary condition
of the restoration of Persian Civil authority in Bushire was agreed to by His
Highness without very serious demur, hut he then boggled over the punish
ment of the Khans and insisted that our troops should be withdrawn at an
early date. He would not promise that further punishment should be meted
out to the Tufangchis v;ho had actually taken part in attack and in regard to
the Khans who were responsible for it he would give no kind of promise. As
regards the troops he said they must be withdrawn in order to appease public
opinion. The news of an attempt on the life of the Consul-General at
Ispahan was received by me at about this point. I at once communicated the
information to His Excellency and pointed out to him that the public opinion
he wished to placate was that which had brought about occurrences such as
this. It was the opinion aroused and paid for by German gold and to his
making any concession to it I could not consent. Until ail danger was past
the British troops must remain. Gendarmes w T ould, His Excellency said, be
sent to which I replied that he was setting wolves to guard His Majesty’s
Kepresentative and that the suggestion would not he entertained for a moment.
Especially in view of the attack on the Consul-General I consider His Excel
lency’s objections as tantamount to a refusal to give us any satisfaction and
as an indication that there is no intention on the part of the Persian Govern*
ment to carry out the policy of neutrality which they have so often proclaimed
and I regret to have to telegraph to this effect to you. The attempt at
Ispahan w as, I warned His Excellency, the fourth of a series of attempts on
the Consular Officers of the two Powers for which no adequate satisfaction
had as yet been given. It revealed a most serious situation and the Persian
Government had now r to make the choice as to whether or not they w ere going
to' permit the achievement by the Germans of their object of making our
position here impossible. Should it he decided by His Excellency now not to
give us very moderate satisfaction circumstances required that we should draw
our own conclusions from his attitude, viz., that Persian Government contem
plated the possibility of relations bein? broken off between Persia and her two
neighbours without serious misgiving. Without consulting his Colleague H»9
Excellency said he could not give a reply.
Repeated to India; Ispahan, Basrah, Shiraz, Bushire, Petrograd and
addressed to Eoreign Office,