AN APOLOGY REFUSED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9132, 3 July 1908, Page 5

AN APOLOGY REFUSED.

Received July.2, 8.10 a.m. TEHERAN, July 1. The Minister ac Teherari (Sir C. A„ Spring Rice) has refused to accept a verbal apology in connection with the incident of surrounding the Consulate.

AN OUTRAGE AT TEHERAN.

FIGHTING AND PILLAGING. Received July 2, 8.20 a.m. TEHERAN, July 1. Revolutionaries declare that Matik, a great Nationalist preacher, was half strangled at Teheran, in the presence of other prisoners. The cord round his neck was then loosened to enable the executioner to hack the neck with a blunt knife. Matik's mangled body was thrown to dogs. There is incessant fight ; ng, riillaging, and atrocities at. Tabriz, the most important city in North-west Persia. '

Received July 2, 10.30 p.m. BERLIN, July 2. A German correspondent at Teheran states that the Shah complained to His Majesty King Edward of the action of the British Legation granting an asylum to members of the Persian Parliament. King Edward's reply justified the course adopted by the Legation, and' emphasised the numerous executions without trial that had taken place. King Edward and the Shah have exchanged telegrams on the subject.

The struggle in Persia is a confusion and a medley, with almost no clearly defined issues, writes the Teheran correspondent of the London "Times." "To an impartial observer the whole development of the Persian situation presents itself as a tragi-comedy, at once entertaining, enlightening, exciting, nonsensical, and ludicrous. It is a dramatic pie:e that belongs 10 no particular school of literature, but partakes of the qualities of all. It has its Hamlets, its Tony Lumpkins, and its Sherlock Holmes, but the acting is weak and t!ie characters require more life and movement. Against its deficiences in these respects may be set the lapidity with which the scene is changed. Every month, every week almost every day, brings us something new, something out of the ordinary, something which we did not expect." The correspondent goes on to tell of a "Council of Conciliation," convened by the Shah, which half a dozen members of the Persian Parliament attended. He writes: "At this council his Majesty pulled a miniature Koran out of his waistcoat pocket, and almost with tears in his eyes, swore by everything dear to him,\ and by that Koran which was the dearest -vf a!h that he loved his subjects as his children, and went on to 'throw honour on the head' of his listeners to such an extent that all the deputies present were brought to believe in his Majesty's sincerity. They returned to the Mejliss and informed their friends of the striking change in the Sovereign's disposition. 'Glad tidings, comrades!' they 1 cried, 'his Majesty is at last converted.' It wa3 in a voice trembling with emotion that the President declared at the sitting of the House that there was no more anxiety at to the fate of the country. One member, on the strength of this news, cried at the top of his voice, 'Let us make merry for the rest of the week'; but the sceptical laughed in their sleeves, as if to say, 'Wait for the next act, my emotional friends.'" And now "the next act" has happened.