791.003/92: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Persia (Philip)
36. Referring to Department’s 35, April 25, 6 p.m., concluding sentence. The Department on April 25 instructed the Embassy in Great Britain partly as follows:
[Here follows text of paragraph (3) of telegram No. 99, Apr. 25, 6 p.m., to the Ambassador in Great Britain, printed on page 710.]
After discussing the foregoing with the British Foreign Office, the Embassy telegraphs that the British Minister in Persia is receiving authority to join in collective representations, as outlined, if he deems them to be feasible and calculated to bring about a useful result.
If collective representations are decided to be feasible, they should, the Department believes, be oral and informal in character, and they might well take place as a friendly conversation between the interested foreign representatives and Teimourtache. The Department is of opinion, also, that the Persian authorities should be carefully impressed with the lack of any thought to try to change the Persian Government’s decision to abolish the capitulations. It is wholly a question of dealing with a practical situation in a practical manner by recognizing that a certain amount of time is necessarily required to modernize the administration of justice in Persia or in any other country.
Please telegraph the Department as soon as possible after discussing the foregoing with the British Minister.