Office of the Historian

391.1163 Lutheran Orient Mission/95: Telegram

The Chargé in Iran (Merriam) to the Secretary of State

Teheran, March 24, 1936—noon.
[Received 3 p.m.]

24. Lutheran missionaries at Saujbulak in Azerbaijan have been ordered to leave by the local governor. This morning I asked the acting Foreign Minister to delay action pending full investigation and drew his attention to the exchange of notes dated May 14, 1928,22 relating to missionary activities.

He did not mention Mirror article23 during our friendly interview and of course I refrained from doing so.

He said that Anayat Ollah Sami’i heretofore Iranian Minister at Baghdad has been appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Merriam
  1. For text of notes, see Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. iii, p. 724.↩
  2. The article in the New York Daily Mirror which led to the withdrawal of the Iranian representatives in the United States. See memorandum by the Under Secretary of State, March 14, and following correspondence, pp. 350 ff.↩