Inclosure 11 in No. 51.

Mr. Murray to the Sadr Azim.

November 17, 1855.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your Highness' despatch dated 17th November; and in reply, to inform your Highness that, although you are pleased to state that, on account of the nature of the subject of which it treats, you cannot consider my despatch of the 16th as official, it is my duty to state, that not only is it official but that the continuance of the friendly relations existing between the Persian Government and this Mission depend upon the answer which your Highness gives to the demand contained in it, and renewed in what I now write.

Your Highness truly says that an official discussion concerning ladies, and especially ladies connected with the Royal "anderoon," is a matter of extreme delicacy, and without precedent. I grant it; but I add, that, however unbecoming or precedented it may be, the blame of it rests with those who have provoked it; for it is also unbecoming and unprecedented that the Persian Government should give orders for the forcible detention and imprisonment of the wife of an employé in this Mission.

Your Highness well knows that the protection enjoyed by employés in this and other foreign Missions, extends to their houses and family; and the Persian Government, in seizing and imprisoning the wife of Meerza Hashem Khan, has offered the same affront to Her Majesty's Government as if they had seized and imprisoned the Meerza himself, which last step your Highness has informed me officially that you would take if I sent him on the duty to which he has been appointed. Although I do not intend to enter into any further discussion on this matter, I wish to give your Highness full time to consider the consequences of the decision to which you may come; and I therefore now officially inform you that if, by 12 o'clock on Monday next, the wife of Meerza Hashem Khan is not set free and restored to her husband, the flag of the Mission will be hauled down, and the responsibility of the interruption of friendly relations between the British and the Persian Governments will rest on those who have caused it, by an act of flagrant and unprecedented injustice.

Translated into Persian by

Mr. Murray to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Received January 1, 1856.)

(Extract.)

Tehran, November 20, 1855.

IN continuation of the matter contained in my despatch of the 17th instant, I have the honour to inform your Lordship that yesterday Prince Seïfed-dowleh Meerza called upon me on the part of the Sadr Azim and discussed at length the case of Meerza Hashem Khan. He said that with regard to the liberating of the Meerza's wife and restoring her to her husband, there would be no difficulty about it, and it might be effected immediately; but in that case he wished to know what I meant to do in respect to the Meerza himself. I replied that I should send him to Shiraz in obedience to the instructions of Her Majesty's Government. To this he replied that such a proceeding would be very painful to the Shah and to the Persian Government, after all the correpondence that had taken place, and asked me whether there was no course which I could suggest by which a satisfactory arrangement might be effected. To this I replied that, in order to show that it was not my wish to drive matters to extremes, I was ready to restore Meerza Hashem Khan to the Persian service, provided the Persian Government, after having liberated his wife, offered to the Meerza a salary somewhat better than that attached to our Shiraz Agency, and gave me a document assuring its continuance and the safety of the Meerza's person, family, &c. The proposals made by the Prince on

the part of the Government were reasonable, and indeed liberal, so I agreed to allow him to negotiate an amicable arrangement of the affair on this basis.

As our conversation had been of some duration, and the hour of noon fixed in my despatch to the Sedr Azim as the time at which my flag would be struck if the Meerza's wife were not liberated, was near at hand, he asked for two hours' delay in order that the Shah's pleasure might be taken; to this I acceded. Just as the time had elapsed, and the Meerza was on his way to demand his wife, a messenger came down post haste from the Prince asking for two hours' more delay, on the plea that His Majesty had been out riding and had only just returned; to this I again acceded.

Whether the Persian Government considered these concessions of delay, and my listening to their proposals of a compromise, as a proof of weakness or hesitation, I know not; but certain it is that when, a little before sunset, the Meerza went to demand his wife's liberation, it was peremptorily refused, and an answer given that it could not be done without an order from the Sadr Azim. On receiving this intelligence, just as I was about to give an order for striking the flag, Hyder Effendi, the Ottoman Chargé d'Affaires, came to me on the part of Sadr Azim, with whom he had discussed the whole affair; he acknowledged that, in his own opinion, I was entirely in the right, and the conduct of the Persian Government in seizing and imprisoning the Meerza's wife entirely indefensible; but he entreated me to defer striking my flag till the following morning, in order that he might have time to go back to the palace and persuade the Persian Government to send back the Meerza's wife, the same evening, under charge of her brother, to her husband's house. To this I replied that, although the behaviour of the Sadr in this matter deserved and would obtain from me no such concession, out of my regard for Hyder Effendi himself, and my respect for the office which he held, I agreed to his request, and he left me to return to the Sadr. About 10 P.M. I received a note from him, saying that the Sadr could do nothing in the matter, as the Shah was on a visit to his mother, and he asked for twenty-four hours' more delay; I received, also, about the same hour, a private note from M. Bourée urging me in the strongest terms to give a further delay of a few days. To these two notes I replied by expressing my regret that it was out of my power to agree to the suggestions contained in them, as the pretexts and subterfuges to which the Persian Government had had recourse during the preceding three days, proved to me that they had no intention of acceding to my just and peremptory demand for the liberation of the Meerza's wife.

I regret very much that it has been out of my power in this instance to adopt the views and counsel of my French colleague, but in this case I held the maintenance of the rights and honour of this Mission to be a consideration of higher importance than the inconveniences which might be consequent upon the temporary suspension of relations with the Persian Government, and accordingly this morning I have struck my flag.

Although I feel fully assured of your Lordship's support and approbation upon the grounds heretofore set forth, yet in full justification of a measure so serious and so contrary to my own wishes and those of Her Majesty's Government, I am compelled to state additional grounds which I would gladly have withheld from the pages of an official correspondence. I refer to the language held by the Sadr Azim, both verbally and in writing, respecting myself and other members of this Mission. His Highness on two several occasions has said to two European gentlemen, both holding official situations at Tehran, that the reason why Mr. Thomson first took Meerza Hashem Khan into the Mission and retained him under protection, was that he had an intrigue with the Meerza's wife; he has also stated more lately the same thing of myself as my reason for continuing the protection and employment of the Meerza, and he has spread this report throughout the whole of the Shah's palace. Now, my Lord, as this calumny is as gross and groundless in both cases as if it had been directed against the character of the Sadr's own mother, I respectfully ask your Lordship whether such conduct on the part of Sadr, the unjustifiable slander of a lady so nearly related to the Shah, and the attribution of such motives for my public conduct and that of Mr. Thomson, are not most offensive, reprehensible, and hypocritical actions, when proceeding from the Prime Minister, who penned

the inclosure in my despatch of the 17th instant, in which he says that he never would dare to speak, much less to write, on matters so delicate as those in which the Harem is concerned?

I have yet to add, that only yesterday the Sadr addressed to me a despatch most offensive and unbecoming, in which allusion, or rather insinuation, respecting the same subject occurs, and a threat is held out that if I strike my flag his Highness will be compelled to make certain disclosures, &c.

I appeal to your Lordship whether, under these calumnies, these personal affronts to myself, and these insults to the Mission, above all, under the threat above alluded to, I should have been worthy to hold the charge intrusted to me if I had hesitated to strike a flag which had been so grossly and unjustifiably insulted?

The despatch in which the offensive passage above alluded to occurs, is not inclosed in this despatch, because the Prince and another messenger from the Court have been here this morning to inquire whether there are no means of accommodating this dispute and arranging it so that the flag may be rehoisted before the departure of the courier to-morrow. I have replied that after what has passed, the dispute admits of no arrangement, unless as preliminary steps the Meerza's wife be restored to her husband, and the Sadr Azim comes to the Mission in person to withdraw his yesterday's despatch and to make me an apology for writing it. On these conditions, I have agreed to rehoist the flag and not to forward to your Lordship a copy of the aforesaid despatch.

To-morrow I will not fail to send to your Lordship the latest accounts of the progress of this affair.

No. 53.

Mr. Murray to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Received January 1, 1856.)

(Extract.)

Tehran, November 21, 1855.

I HAVE the honour to inform your Lordship that yesterday, after I had finished my preceding despatch, M. Bourée dined and spent the evening with me; before leaving he entreated me to allow him to make a last effort to accommodate the pending dispute, so that my flag might be rehoisted before the departure of the courier to-day at 12, and he asked me what terms I had proposed or could propose. I told him those mentioned in the conclusion of my despatch of yesterday to your Lordship. He said that the liberation of the Meerza's wife was indeed a necessary preliminary measure, but that he thought that the forcing the Sadr to come here in person on such short notice, to withdraw and apologise for his offensive despatch, was a humiliation somewhat hard to exact, and one to which the Persian Government could hardly be expected to submit; and he asked if I would not be satisfied if the Sadr Azim, in lieu of coming in person, wrote to me officially this morning to retract and withdraw his offensive despatch and to apologise for having written it. I replied that I should not be satisfied, because in this city, when the British flag was lowered, the Sadr Azim coming in person with fifty attendants, to make reparation, would be a fact known to every one; whereas, his written despatch would he known to few, and among Persians he would not scruple to deny having apologised at all.

M. Bourée entreated me to accept the written apology if it was sent. Thus appealed to, I could not refuse his request, and I promised him that if, before noon to-day, the Meerza's wife was restored to her husband, and I received a full written retractation of, and apology for, the offensive despatch, I would not forward the latter to your Lordship, and I would resume diplomatic relations with the Persian Court.

2 P.M.-M. Bourée has just returned from a long interview with the Sadr, and has brought with him a letter of retractation and apology for the offensive dispatch, which I might have accepted if the Meerza's wife had been restored to her husband, which I had insisted on as a preliminary measure,

Instead of this M. Bourée was bearer of a proposal that the Government should place the lady in the house of her mother-in-law. To this I have replied that I can no more admit the transfer of the wife from one relative's house to another without her own consent, or that of her husband, than I can admit_the_right of the Persian Government to imprison her where she now is, and that I renew my demand for her restoration to her husband in his own house as the sole basis of the resumption of negotiation. M. Bourée wished me to wait while he wrote again to the Sadr, to renew a demand on this last head. I told M. Bourée that I appreciated his well-intentioned endeavours, but as this very proposal of the Sadr's had already been made and refused twice, it proved to me that it was a mere pretext to gain time, and that the courier must leave immediately. I would beg him simply to inform the Sadr that I had declined the proposal, and that therefore his attempt at mediation has failed.

P.S.-Under the existing circumstances, it is my duty to forward to your Lordship the offensive despatch I have alluded to.

(Translation.)

Inclosure in No. 53.

The Sadr Azim to Mr. Murray.

November 19, 1855.

I HAVE received your Excellency's letter of the 17th instant. I have been greatly surprised and puzzled to imagine why you have unjustly interfered in and pressed an affair of such delicacy and danger that even I, the moment I perceived it had reference to the Royal harem, and had given great offence to His Majesty, immediately shunned, and avoided the matter completely. Far less, then, ought a person who represents a foreign Government and country to interfere on such a point. The question regarding Meerza Hashem Khan himself, which has been under discussion between us, has not yet been terminated; and the Persian Ministers have never admitted that he is a servant of the British Mission, nor will they ever admit such a thing. They still consider him as a refugee Persian officer who has taken sanctuary in the Mission, like Meerza Hassan, who is still within the precincts of the Mission, and whom your Excellency unjustly protects. How, then, can the right to protect the dependents of Meerza Hashem Khan be recognised? Moreover, no answer has yet been received from you to my last letter of the 15th instant; and under these circumstances, by what right and on what grounds has a new question been mooted, in which is involved the honour of His Majesty the Shah? All that was necessary in the shape of explanation and just arguments was advanced by me with regard to Meerza Hashem Khan, and if you will examine them with the eyes of justice, they are not without

reason.

If your Excellency, for certain reasons, has overlooked the first question, and persists in urging the second-which I have neither the power nor permission to argue or touch upon; nay, if, as stated in your letter under acknowledgment, you should endanger the friendship which has endured for so many years between Persia and England, I distinctly state to your Excellency that even this will be for the Persian Ministers easier than, by agreeing to your unjust proceeding, to submit to the serious confusions which would arise, and which would endanger the independence of Persia; nay, even the security of all and sundry of its inhabitants.

In such an event, the Persian Ministers will have nothing for it but to state what they have not yet considered it suitable to record in an official note, that is, the true reason. They will then, being forced to the announcement, let the foreign community in this country know, what they have not hitherto understood, the laws of the Mahomedan religion, and the chaste desires of the Persian people. They will refer the case to the justice of the British Ministers, and hold your Excellency responsible for the consequences.

P.S.-The British Ministers, as was once intimated to us, are desirous that the Persian Government should adopt measures for treating their subjects and dependents in accordance with the principles of justice and equity, so that people should not be forced, from injustice and oppression, to have recourse to the sanctuary of the Mission, and to give rise to so much trouble; but they were not aware of the fact that persons seek the asylum of the Mission premises, not against injustice, but to procure an increase of pay, or station, or with some other idea, and in this way caused annoyance. At all events I am always ready to discuss, in this present case or in any other, either verbally or in writing, when your Excelleney has just arguments to advance, and I am prepared to trouble you with verbal communications.

Translated by

I HAVE received your despatches of the 17th and 20th of November, reporting in detail your differences with the Persian Government on account of their refusal to acknowledge Hashem Khan as British Agent at Shiraz; and I have to acquaint you that Her Majesty's Government approve of your striking your flag and no longer listening to the request for delay before resorting to that measure.

No. 55.

Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Received January 14.) My Lord,

Constantinople, January 3, 1856.

THE Persian Chargé d'Affaires, acting under the instructions of his Government, sought an interview with me the day before yesterday. His object was to deliver a letter and accompanying note addressed to me by the Persian Grand Vizier, with reference to Mr. Murray's late proceedings and their present termination in his departure from Persia. He had no authority to enter into the merits of the question with me, and your Lordship is aware that I have no such authority myself. He expressed the deepest regret that any misunderstanding should have taken place between his Government and Her Majesty's Representative. It was evidently expected that I should interfere to effect a reconciliation without any surrender of the Persian pretension. It would, indeed, be highly gratifying to me if I could in any becoming way be instrumental to the re-establishment, on proper grounds, of a good understanding between the estranged parties; and I am persuaded that the French Ambassador would willingly assist in the accomplishment of so good a work. Having occasion to see his Excellency yesterday, I found the Persian Chargé d'Affaires engaged in talking over the subject with him, and I availed myself of the opportunity to repeat what I had stated before to the latter, namely, that I had no control over Mr. Murray's proceedings, that I joined with him in regretting an incident which was anything but opportune, and could only hope that the Persian Government would prove the sincerity of its assurances by enabling Mr. Murray to return to Tehran with satisfaction, reserving the power, if necessary and desirable, of appealing to Her Majesty's Government for a final decision on the point in dispute.