THE CRISIS IN PERSIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3003, 28 September 1908, Page 5

THE CRISIS IN PERSIA.

Received September 27, 3.15 p.m. TEHERAN, September 26. The Shah has summoned the Mejliss (or National Council) and Senate for November 14th.

The Shah until 1906 carried on his Government through a Cabinet of responsible ministers. On August Kfch, 1906, howevtr, a decree was issued convoking a National Assembly. The constitution was dated January Ist, 1907, and it was confirmed on February 11th by Mohamed Ali, Shah, after his successor. It provides for a National Council (Mejliss) of 162 members tote raised in case of need to 200 by six classes of electors. The constitution provides for the creation of a Senate of 60 members, half appointed by the Shah and half by the National Council. Dr. E. J. Dillon shows, in an article in the "Contemporary Review," for August, that Mohammed Ali, before he came to the throne, was a fanat'c ;1 partisan of absolute government, and boiled with indignation when the late Shah, Muzffer ed-adin, surrendered his autocratic power and granted a Constitution and a National Assembly to Persia the demand of "a few insistent place-hunters." However, when Mohammed Ali himS3lf came to the throne the mischief, a3 he regarded it, was done, the Mejliss, or National Assembly, was j:o actuality, and thenceforward he set himself to delend his throne, and with it in all probability his life, from the machinations of those who stood behind the popular party. As Governor-General of Tabriz, Moham • med Ali had a long experience of ad ministration before he became Shah, and Dr. Dillon describes him as a strong-willed, capable and ruthless Oriental despot. Against him is now ranged his uncle, Zilli Sultan, also strong-willed, capable and even more ruthless, with the additional advantage of being the possessor of great wealth, which is deposited in a European bank. Zilli Sultan is able to pay for the services of troops out of his own pocket, while the Shah is in a condition of chronic impecuniosity, besides being heavily in debt to Russia. The real struggle in Persia, according to the view of this well-informed authority, is not between patriot* and a tyrant, but between two despots, each of whom is making desperate efforts to oust his rival. And the unhappy Persian people can hupe for no improvement in their condition, no abatement of the crushing taxation, and no better security for life and property than, exists at present, however the issue I of the struggle may be determined.