missaires et les résolutions prises au sujet de l'Ile des Serpents et du Delta du Danube.

HUBNER.

WALEWSKI.

COWLEY.

HATZFELDT.

BRUNNOW.

VILLAMARINA.

MEHEMMED DJEMIL.

CORRESPONDENCE between Great Britain and Persia,

respecting the Appointment of Meerza Hashem Khan to be British Agent at Shiraz; the Suspension of Diplomatic Relations between the two Countries; and the Proceedings of Persia in Herat.-1855-1857.*

[Continued from Vol. XLV. Page 642.]

No. 48.-Mr. Murray to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Rec. July 30.) (Extract.) Camp near Tehran, June 22, 1855. WITH reference to the correspondence noted in the margin, I have the honour to request your Lordship's attention to the case of Meerza Hashem Khan, who was, in the first instance, appointed First Persian Secretary to this Mission, and subsequently recommended for the office of British Agent at Shiraz; for both of which situations, Mr. W. T. Thomson has pronounced him highly qualified -an opinion in which I entirely concur.

The most reasonable argument against Meerza Hashem Khan being retained as First Secretary, was the fact of his family having for a long time been at enmity with that of the Sadr Azim, and that the Government did not wish him to be the medium of communication between his Highness and this Mission; but with regard to the second nomination, I am of opinion that the objection does not apply with equal force, first, because there seems to exist a personal dislike between the Prime Minister and Meerzá Hashem Khan; and, secondly, because in this situation he is not in any way brought into contact with the Persian Government. Deeply compromised, as he certainly is, by his adherence to the British Mission, he has no wish to return to the Persian service. Another point I would bring to your Lordship's notice, is the principle of conceding to the Persian Government the right of questioning the appointments, the nature of the duties of which are thoroughly British, and for the proper conduct of which the agents are responsible to us alone.

* Laid before Parliament, 1857.

At a recent interview with the Sadr Azim, he harped upon the necessity of a discharge from the Shah's Government, before a man could take service with another Power. In the course of conversation, the Sadr Azim admitted that the Meerza had demanded an increase of pay, which was refused. The Meerza then requested his discharge, as his salary was insufficient; the Sadr Azim said he might go where he pleased, but his pay would not be augmented. The Sadr Azim now denies the validity of such a dismissal, and urges that the King's seal is necessary: by inquiries which I have made, I find that such formal discharge has not been the usual practice.

I trust, therefore, that your Lordship will sanction the appointment, as I cannot find any other person so well qualified; independently of which, I am confident of his fidelity, as he is sensible of the misery which must inevitably await him should he, by any misconduct, be dismissed the service, and forfeit the protection of the Mission.

I beg, in conclusion, to add that if, before receiving your Lordship's reply, I obtain the consent of the Persian Government, or owing to any other circumstances, have reason to believe that the appointment of Meerza Hashem Khan is advisable and expedient, I shall not hesitate to anticipate your Lordship's sanction, and appoint him accordingly.

The Earl of Clarendon.

SIR,

CH. A. MURRAY.

No. 49.-The Earl of Clarendon to Mr. Murray. Foreign Office, August 1, 1855. In reply to your despatch of the 22nd of June, I have to state to you that under the circumstances which you report, I approve of your appointing Meerza Hashem Khan to be British Agent at Shiraz.

C. A. Murray, Esq.

I am, &c.

CLARENDON.

No. 50.-Mr. Murray to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Rec. Dec. 21.) MY LORD, Tehran, November 9, 1855.

I HAVE the honour to inform your Lordship that I find myself again drawn into a most disagreeable correspondence with the Per. sian Government, by the perverse obstinacy of the Sadr Azim. The matter in discussion is unimportant; but the consequences, if his Highness perseveres in his threatened course, may be very serious. Agreeably to the instructions contained in your Lordship's despatch of 1st August, I appointed Meerza Hashem, who has been for upwards of a year resident in the Mission, to the British Agency at Shiraz. All the circumstances connected with the case of Meerza Hashem were stated to your Lordship in detail in my despatch of

June 22; it is not, therefore, necessary to trouble your Lordship with a repetition of them. The Sadr Azim now, adducing the name and authority of the Shah, persists in maintaining that the Meerza cannot, and shall not, hold any appointment under Her Britannic Majesty's Government, and has intimated, in terms too plain to be misunderstood, that if the Meerza leaves Tehran for Shiraz, the Persian Government will cause him to be seized or detained. To this I have replied, that as the Meerza has his British passport and agency commission under your Lordship's instructions, if the Persian Government attempt to detain or molest him in the discharge of his duties, they must expect the same consequences as would ensue from a similar injury offered to any other servant or employé of the Mission, and that the responsibility of those consequences will rest upon them. So far as I can judge from language, the Sadr is determined not to concede the point, and prefers risking the interruption of friendly relations with this Mission to the permitting a man whom he dislikes, and whose family has a feud with his own, to eat his bread in peace at a remote post under the protection of the British Government.

In this, as in most other instances, his Highness has used the Shah's name just as it suits his convenience: when it answers his purpose to act on his own responsibility, and at his own pleasure, he makes no scruple of saying that His Majesty has nothing to do with such matters, and that he himself is the organ of the Persian Government; when, on the contrary, it suits his purpose to cloak his own personal views under the pretence of zeal for the Shah's honour, then he excites and irritates His Majesty and draws him personally into the discussion that may be going on; the latter course he has followed on this occasion with a view to drawing me into a personal dispute with the Shah; but I have protested against this irregular course, and have desired his Highness to carry on the discussion as usual in the name of the Persian Government, without dragging His Majesty into it.

Copies of this correspondence, with a report of its result, will be transmitted to your Lordship by a future post.

I have, &c.

The Earl of Clarendon.

CH. A. MURRAY.

No. 51.-Mr. Murray to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Rec. Jan. 1, 1856.) (Extract.) Tehran, November 17, 1855.

I HAVE the honour to inclose, for your Lordship's information, copies and translations of the correspondence that has taken place between the Sadr Azim and myself respecting Meerza Hashem Khan, appointed to the British Agency at Shiraz, under the instructions contained in your Lordship's despatch dated August 1.

It is with much regret that I find myself obliged to take up your Lordship's time with these prolix and tedious documents upon a matter of most trifling importance in itself, but rendered serious in its consequences by the perverse obstinacy of the Sadr Azim.

Your Lordship will see it stated in the Sadr Azim's despatch (Inclosure No. 6), that he never knew of our having an agent at Ispahan, Shiraz, &c., and that the Persian Government never had consented, and never would consent, to such a thing; whereas it is a notorious fact that not a week passes that our local agents are not in communication with the Governors of those towns, respecting the claims of Hindoos and other British subjects. Only a short time ago, in a case reported to the Foreign Office, the Sadr Azim, at my request, ordered a Commission of Arbitration to sit at Ispahan, in presence of our Agent, on the claims of a British. subject against the Custom-House, which was accordingly done, and the result reported to me by our Agent; yet now, because the Sadr's order for arbitration was addressed direct to the Persian Governor, and not sent in writing to me, he denies the fact, and says in an official letter that he never knew that we had an Agent at Ispahan. And with respect to our Agency at Shiraz, two years have scarcely elapsed since a chief servant of the Sadr's, who had insulted. our Agent there, was, on the official demand of Mr. Thomson, sent back all the way from this place, and publicly punished in Shiraz in presence of our Agent.

I proceed to call your attention briefly to the more salient points of this dispute with the Persian Government; the first and chief of which is, whether the British Government was justified in considering Meerza Hashem Khan as being out of the actual service of the Persian Government, and as being, therefore, eligible, like any other Persian subject, for employment under this Mission. In support of this point, your Lordship will observe that I have proved that the Meerza had been employed upwards of a year in the Mission without any pay from the Persian Government; that on my arrival, and since my arrival, the Sadr Azim had never privately or officially complained to me of Mr. Thomson's having retained the Meerza in the Mission, nor had he ever requested me to induce the Meerza to return to any real or supposed service under the Persian Government; that the words which he acknowledged to me in the presence of my Attaché, that he had formerly addressed to Meerza Hashem Khan, were, in the opinion of that individual, in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, and of this Mission, equivalent to a dismissal from the Shah's service, and a permission to gain his livelihood elsewhere. On these grounds, I had, agreeably to your Lordship's instructions, appointed him to the Agency at Shiraz. The replies of the Sadr to these arguments your Lordship will see in his Highness's own [1856-57. XLVII.]

despatches, in which he plainly tells me that if I send the Meerza on his duty to Shiraz he will be seized and imprisoned by order of the Persian Government; a step which the Sadr well knew, without my telling him so, must lead to the hauling down the flag of this Mission.

The next step in the transaction is the seizing and imprisoning the wife of the Meerza; a measure which was not only a violation of the rights enjoyed under Treaty by employés of the Mission, but also a violation of the civil and religious law of Persia. As soon as I heard of this outrage, I desired the Meerza to lose no time in obtaining from 2 or 3 of the principal Moshtehids, a fetwah or decree, as to the law on his case respecting the detention of his wife, or the attempt at forcible divorce, without his consent. These he obtained, and it was fortunate that he did so, as, although they could not materially affect the diplomatic question at issue, they proved, beyond dispute, that the Persian Government had been guilty of an act of illegal violence; and to show the animus by which they were influenced, I may add that, if he had not applied, and got these fetwahs immediately, he would not have got them at all, for 2 or 3 other Moshtehids, to whom application was subsequently made, acknowledged that they could not give any fetwah on the subject, as they had received a prohibitory message from the Sadr.

Here, in this one incident, we have an instance of a Prime Minister who insults a foreign friendly Mission, oppresses a Persian subject, and then tries to close the only avenue which the laws of the country afford for justice or redress.

My Lord, I felt that I should disgrace the position which I hold, and the country which I serve, if I had submitted to this gross affront offered to our flag; so I have insisted on the wife of the Meerza being liberated and restored to her husband. I have given the Persian Government until Monday next, the 19th instant, to inform me of their decision, under the alternative conveyed in my despatch to the Sadr, Inclosure No. 11. The Earl of Clarendon.

CH. A. MURRAY.

(Inclosure 1.)—Mr. Murray to the Sadr Azim.

November 4, 1855.

MEERZA HASHEM KHAN having been nominated to Shiraz by Her Majesty's Government to reside in that city as Agent for this Mission, I have the honour to state, for your Highness's information, that he has been furnished with his commission and passport, and will start for his post in the course of a few days.

H.E. The Sadr Azim.

CH. A. MURRAY.

* High Priests.