IOR/L/PS/10/355

The volume comprises copies of correspondence, Memoranda, minutes, telegrams, and other papers mainly between the British Ministry at Tehran; and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. The correspondence is relating to the financial difficulties of the Persian Government and the question of loans payment. Suggestions were made by the British Government on how the Persian Government could pay back its loans. Among the suggestions were sales of the crown jewels, or islands off Bundar Abbas. While selling the crown jewels was not an option, the sale of the islands was the subject of correspondence between the British and the Russian Governments. The Russian Government had no objections to the British Government’s purchasing the Gulf islands or to anything which The British chose to do in South Persia as long as they keep quiet about north Persia.

The correspondence deals with arrangements for the payment of the loan, conditions attached to it, the agreement of terms between the British, the Persian and the Russian Governments, and the Imperial Bank of Persia. A few issues related to the loan were discussed, among which were:

• the proposal of joint Anglo-Russia advances of £100,000; and £400,000 to the Persian Government;
• the interest on loans to The Persian Government;
• the question of claiming compound interest on arrears of interest payable on Anglo-Indian advances;
• payment of the November coupon on the Imperial Government of Persia loan of 1911 of which the British government paid half of its amount, i.e. £7184 9s 4d.

The file also contains correspondence relating to the behaviour of the Swedish gendarmerie in Persia. Despite the reports of His Majesty’s Consul in Kerman on their inappropriate behaviour, it was made clear that, if financial assistant was not achieved Persia would witness a total collapse of the administration of the gendarmerie followed by anarchy throughout the country.

The volume’s principal correspondents are: Sir Walter Beaupre Townley, British Minister at Tehran; Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; Major William Frederick Travers O’Connor, Acting Consul at Shiraz; Sir George William Buchanan, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Russia; and the Imperial Bank of Persia.

The volume’s core correspondence covers the period September 1914 to September 1918. The earlier start date given for the volume is a result of correspondence included in a confidential enclosure, itself dated April- March 1914, on the Swedish gendarmerie and the incidents took place in Kazerun region of Persia in the early 1914 (ff 133-138).