HOW PERSIAN POLICEMEN EXIST.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 867, 13 July 1910, Page 7

HOW PERSIAN POLICEMEN EXIST.

Persia has-been in a disturbed state for some time 'past. When the first Parliament in 1306 under the Constitution passed by the grandfather of the present Shah it demanded ministerial responsibility, control of the finances, and immediate reform of the administration throughout the country. "Why not ask for a republic?" said'the Shah. And when the Parliament threatened to cut down his income to ..£IOO,OOO a year he fired on the Parliament building and violently dissolved Parliament. Under the pressure of England and Kussia, a new general election took place, and the powerful Bakhtiari tribe throwing their weight against the Shah he was deposed, and his son installed in his place. The city of Ispahan, with a population in the neighbourhood of 100,000, boasts some 80. policemen ' and 25 Bakhtiari horsemen, who,' for lack of money, are unpaid, unfed, and unclothed. Writing in .February last, a "Times" correspond-, ent said of them:—"They spend their days doing odd jobs for the inhabitants, and generally in endeavouring to «ke out a precarious livelihood without the assistance of the authorities, whose buttons they wear. There are no other forces of any kind in the town, and the truth is that Ispahan itself lies at tho mercy of any determined band of robbers who like to enter. Fortunately for the Ispahanis. determination and enterprise are qualities lacking, among the' unruly elements in Persia, as well as among the orderly."