IOR/L/PS/12/3502

Correspondence concerning the compatibility of legal safeguards in relation to the expiration of the Tariff Autonomy Treaty, agreed between the British and Persian Governments on 10 May 1928, and a new law passed by the Government of Iran in 1936 that authorised the use of the death penalty against armed smugglers, as well as their trial by military court (i.e. behind closed doors). An English translation of the law is included in the file (f 58). The file’s principal correspondents are: HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Tehran, Horace James Seymour; the British Counsellor at the Legation in Tehran, Nevile Montagu Butler; and the Foreign Office. Correspondence includes: concerns raised amongst various British Government officials over the new law; a letter detailing concerns about the new law, sent by Seymour to the Iranian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Enayatollah Samiy (ff 26-28). A letter sent by Butler to the Foreign Office, dated 1 October 1936, contains an extract of French text: a portion of a memorandum written by the Armenian lawyer Raphael Aghababoff (ff 54-57).

The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.