PERSIAN DISRUPTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 9007, 17 December 1907, Page 5

PERSIAN DISRUPTION.

FIGHTING BETWEEN NATIONALISTS AND ROYALISTS.

CABINET MINISTERS ARRESTED.

Received December 16, 10 p.m

TEHERAN, December 16. Fighting has occurred at Teheran between Nationalists and Royalists.

The city is in a state of siege, and tribal cavalry and Cossacks are parading before the palace. The British Legation and Consulates are guarded. The Nationalists have taken shelter in the Sipahsalar Mosque and the reactionaries in the gun square. The trouble is due to the Shah's refusal to expel the reactionary chiefs intriguing against the Cabinet. The Ministry has resigned, apparently under compulsion since the three principal Ministers, including Nassarelmulk, the Premier, were afterwards arrested at the Shah's order.

Parliament is enraged, and has asked the Shah his reasons for the arrest.

It was resolved that it should await the answer prior to this angry mob demanding the immedia'e execution of several soldiers for recently murdering two shop-keepers. During a street affray a procession fired into the Parliament buildings. A HOPELESS CONDITION. THE SULTAN FINDS HIS OPPORTUNITY. Received December 17, 0.'57 a.m. LONDON, December 16. "The Times" depicts the hopeless condition of affairs among the Persians, and the decomposition of the Persian State. The Cossacks, it states, are no longer in Kosakowsky's hands, and in the blind struggle between the reformers and reactionaries neither know how to govern. It is unknown whether the Cossacks consistently take either side. Moreover, the Persians are subject to depredations by the Turks. The Sultan finds the opportunity good for the prosecution of schemes of conquest on the frontier, and unless other Powers bring him to account, he will meet with no serious obstacle.