Office of the Historian

No. 913.
Mr. Pratt to Mr. Bayard.

Legation of the United States,
Teheran, February 6, 1888. (Received March 12.)
No. 185.]

Sir: On the 3d instant, in my dispatch No. 184, diplomatic series, transmitted by English foreign office courier, I had the honor to inclose you at the request of the Shah’s minister, his excellency the Emin é Soultan, a specimen of native gold-bearing quartz, upon the value of which His Majesty desired to obtain the opinion of United States Government experts.

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His excellency the Emin é Soultan, minister of finance, of the interior and of the court, has now requested me, at the Shah’s instance, to ask if you could not recommend to this Government (or advise it how to proceed to secure the services of) two first-class American mining engineers 4nd geologists of practical experience, with two competent assistants each, for the purpose of making explorations and opening mines throughout the mineral region of the Empire.

The Shah’s Government would also like to know if the Government of the United States could inform it as to the salaries it would be expected to pay such employés, and also if it would be possible to engage in the said capacity any in the American Government’s employ whose services our Government could conveniently dispense with.

I am, etc.,

E. Spencer Pratt.