I am pleased to be able to add that the note, however unusual in its
tone, has had for its effect the capture and incarceration of Seyid
Ghaffar, who has murdered a British subject and an American citizen,
both within the past six months, and whose claim of lineal descent from
Mahomet made his arrest difficult and peculiarly embarrassing to the
Persian Government.
[Inclosure.]
Identic note to His Highness the Ain-ed-Dowleh
from His Excellency Sir A. Harding and the Hon. Richmond
Pearson.
The undersigned, ministers plenipotentiary of His Majesty the King of
Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India, and of the United
States of America, have the honor to invite your highness’s most
serious attention to the condition of affairs in the district of
Urumia. As the Persian Government is aware, from the separate
representations which the undersigned have repeatedly made to it, no
adequate steps have been taken to apprehend Seyid Ghaffar, who,
after first killing, several months ago, a naturalized
British-Canadian subject named Daniel, has since assassinated, with
circumstances of revolting atrocity, the Rev. Benjamin Labaree, an
American citizen, who was a highly respected member of the American
clergy working in Azerbaijan. The murderer and his accomplices are
still at large in the neighborhood of Urumia, but, though orders
have been sent to the acting governor of Urumia to arrest them, he
is powerless for want of troops. The latest telegram received from
Consul-General Wratis-law, who represents British and United States
interests at Tabriz, is to the effect that nothing is being done for
the arrest of the murderers, and that the governor proposes to hold
a court of inquiry, which would probably be absolutely useless. No
doubt it is desirable, when a person is charged with murder, that
every care should be taken to investigate the charge, but a criminal
trial in the absence of the accused is hardly likely to advance the
ends of justice. The consequence of this deplorable inaction on the
part of the Persian authorities is that the Kurds, emboldened by it,
are plundering Christian villages, and that both the British and
American missionaries at Urumia are in imminent danger. The British
missionaries have telegraphed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
chief prelate of the English Church, to ask his grace to represent
the gravity
[Page 668]
of the
situation to His Majesty’s Government, and Mr. Wratislaw has, at his
own suggestion, been instructed by telegraph to proceed himself to
Urumia in order to reassure them and to advise as to the necessary
steps. The Kurds number about 1,000 men, and as there appear to be
absolutely no Persian troops at Urumia, an extraordinary state of
affairs considering the constantly disturbed condition of that
frontier district, the Persian officials have apparently no means of
enforcing the authority of the Shah’s Government.
It appears to the undersigned that the following measures are urgent
and should be adopted without a moment’s delay:
- (1)
- A sufficient force, which they suggest might be two
infantry regiments and 300 cavalry, should be dispatched by
telegraphic orders either from Tabriz, or from the nearest
garrison to Urumia, to overawe the Kurds and occupy the
principal roads and passes leading from Urumia into Ottoman
country, so as to prevent the escape of the murderers across
the border. If this had been done when the matter was first
represented to the Persian Government the criminals might by
now have been captured, but every day which passes will
render their arrest more difficult, as the roads are fast
opening with the melting of the snow in the passes. No time
should therefore be lost in taking these essential
steps.
- (2)
- The governor of Urumia should be authorized to draw 15,000
tomans, and such further sums as he may subsequently find to
have been requisite, from the nearest branch of the Imperial
or Russian Bank for the expenses of his operations.
- (3)
- He should be informed that the successful arrest of the
murderers will be a condition of his maintenance in
office.
- (4)
- The Mollah Mirza Hussein Agha of Urumia, who has extended
his protection to Seyid Ghaffar, should be removed from
Urumia and informed that if he attempts to resist he will be
treated as an accessory to the crime.
- (5)
- A pecuniary reward should be offered for any information
which may lead to the apprehension of the murderers, and a
proclamation issued and circulated through the district that
any village sheltering them will be burned, and that any
person assisting them will be shot as an accessory after the
fact to their crime and as a rebel against the Shah’s
authority.
If these measures are taken without further procrastination there is
some hope that justice may be eventually done, but it is imperative
that they should not be delayed. The undersigned, confident that the
Persian Government must feel as deeply as they do themselves the
disgrace which will attach to it in the eyes of the civilized world
if it be shown to be powerless to punish the brutal murder of
inoffensive foreigners within its territories, are convinced that
the earnest appeal which they hereby make to your highness to act
promptly and energetically in this matter will not be addressed to
you in vain.
The undersigned reserve for the present the question of the pecuniary
indemnity to be claimed by them from the local government on behalf
of the families of the victims.
- Arthur H. Hardinge.
- Richmond Pearson.
