MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON HIRTY-SEVEN years ago today Persia received her first con- stitution. The imperial rescript which created the first Persian Majlis was signed by the dying Muzaffar-ud-Din Shah " on the fourteenth of Jumada the Second in the eleventh year of Our Reign," namely, on August 6th, 1906. The origin of the democratic move- ' ment in Persia can be traced back to two remarkable men. There was Sayyid Jamal-ud-Din, " the Afghan," who in the last decades of the nineteenth century alarmed and fascinated the great monarch Nasir-ud-Din. And there was that curious figure Malkom Khan, the Armenian ccnjurer, who began by impressing the Persians with his feats of sleight or hand, became Minister to the Court of St. James', and ended by founding the Faramush Khana, or House of Forgetful- ness, which was, in fact, the first Masonic Lodge in Persia. These two, when in exile, jointly edited the paper Kanun, or " Law," in which they assailed the incompetence of Muzaffar-ud-Din Shah, and the greed of his minister, Ayn-ud-Dola, and extolled the virtues of responsible government, and of a written constitution. This news- paper was smuggled into Persia hidden in bales of cotton, and exercised a growing influence upon the younger Persians, who had become susceptible to western ideas, and upon the merchant com- munity in Tehran and Tabriz. The demand for the dismissal of Ayn-ud-Dola and the grant of a constitution increased in violence ; the Shah, who had already had one paralytic stroke, and was about to have another, sought to temporise ; and in the summer of 1906 the movement culminated in a demonstration of a specially Persian character. The bazaars were closed, and twelve thousand citizens of Tehran took bast or sanctuary in the compound of the British Legation at Gulahek. They squatted there under the peat plane- trees or beside water-cisterns ; a cloud of dust rose from what had once been lawns and flower-beds, and hung heavy in the hot air above the little park ; at night a thousand camp fires dotted the shadows ; the legation officials were driven frantic by problems of food, sanitation and order. But the demonstrators refused to leave their asylum until they had obtained their constitution. On August 6th the paralytic Shah surrendered ; Persian democracy, on that day thirty-seven years ago, was born.
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Since then the Persian people have never been given a fair chance. In the first year after the grant of the constitution, there fell upon Persia the misfortune of the Anglo-Russian Convention, which' (whatever may have been its diplomatic justification) was regarded by the Persians as an affront to Persian independence, and as a scheme to partition the country between two European Powers. The weakness or absenteeism of the last two Qajar monarchs failed to provide the stable atmosphere in which alone a' young democracy can prosper ; the field was left open for all manner of external and internal intrigues. The work done by two successive financial missions under Mr. Morgan Shuster and Dr. Millspaugh, with their team of devoted Americans, was brought to nothing. The First German War saw Persia split into hostile camps, and exposed to invasion by three foreign armies. Ravaged and exhausted, Persia fell an easy prey to the rapacious tyranny of Reza Shah Pahlevi. And now that the dictator has been removed, now that Persia, under the guidance of a young monarch, might well seek -to recapture the high endeavour and bright hopes of 1906, she has against her will been involved in the Second German War, and finds foreign armies again in occupation of large sections of her territory. It would seem as if some evil fate had decreed that Persian democracy should never be given the time or the occasion to develop self-reliance. Even those who desire deeply to be the friends of Persia have been forced by circumstances to adopt the horrid guise of invaders.
* * * * Between Great Britain and Persia there exists, if it were only realised, a complete community of interest. It is the policy of the British Government, it is the wish of the British people, that Persia should maintain and strengthen her independence and prosperity. We have no desire whatsoever to increase our own responsibilities ;
all we desire is that the Persians, and, above all, the younger Persians, should acquire a sense of responsibility themselves. Our aims are identical, and in carrying out those aims there are many points of similarity between the Persian and the British characters which should diminish suspicion and increase understanding. No Englishman can live in Persia without acquiring a deep affection for the country, an affection which in after years will-recur to him in a pang almost of home-sickness. No Englishman who really knows the Persians can have anything but respect for their long tradition of culture and warm memories of their kindliness, hospi- tality and charm. We are each of us an illogical people, and are entranced by the lack of logic which we find in each other; the British and the Persians are the only two peoples whose inner pride is so stable that they can laugh at their own faults. The Persians know that the British in Persia—that long line of Consuls, missionaries, telegraph officials, and traders—have almost always treated them with sympathy, and hardly ever .treated them with disrespect. And the British know that the Persians are a highly intelligent people, and that, if only they could acquire greater self- confidence and a dearer national aim, they could achieve a system of government in which order and freedom were combined.
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It is sad for those Englishmen (and they are many) who care deeply for Persia, and wish to see hei become a self-reliant country, to realise the resentment with which we are regarded today in some quarters. The causes of this mistrust are due partly to past mis- understandings and partly to circumstances arising from the present war. Many Persians imagine that it was the British Government that was responsible for the tyranny of Reza Shah, although from the very first year of his reign that despot did all he could to damage British interests and to manifest his hostility towards us. There are many more Persians who naturally resent the presence in their country of British armed forces. The necessity of keeping our Russian ally supplied with munitions has obliged us to make heavy calls upon Persia's railways and her other means of transport; our occupying troops have been forced to requisition meat and ice, and lack of tonnage has prevented us from bringing into the country all the grain and rice which is required. Inevitably we are blamed for the resultant shortage of food-stuffs in those areas of Pers. which depend on imports from outside. The internal disorder the tribal risings and the recurrence of brigandage are directly attri
buted to our presence, and there are many Persians who accu us of being indifferent to their need of stability. No civilian popula
tion welcomes the presence of an army in its midst ; resentmen is unavoidable when that army is of foreign origin. When hung and internal disorder come to inflame this resentment we canno blame the Persians if they fail to understand our difficulties, or at moments they doubt our sympathy.
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This unfortunate tension can be eased only by co-operau between ourselves and the Persians. So long as they for th part avoid all responsibility and attribute all their misfortunes t the 'British, so long will the existing misunderstanding continu It is true that during his long years of despotism Reza Shah sough to stamp out the initiative of all independent minds. That period darkness is now over. The elections for the Majlis are to take pla in November. They will give to all Persian patriots an oppor tunity to assume responsibility for the reconstruction of the country. The young men above all should cease to stand aloof, an should realise that the future of Persia lies in their hands. P vincial Councils might also be revived so as to give a further nn pulse to local energies. The certain cure for 'any nightmare is wake from sleep ; and on this anniversary of Persian democracy w beg young Persia to cast off its lethargy ; to remember the grea Persian past ; to dismiss all doubts regarding Persia's future ; and t create, as they can create, a free and ordered Persia of their ow If they do this, they will no longer regard us as their enemies ; the will fmd in us firm and faithful friends.
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