THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1909. TO-MORROW, BY THE GRACE OF GOD.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9547, 20 July 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1909. TO-MORROW, BY THE GRACE OF GOD.

The Shah of Persia has been de-j posed! Such was ona of the items of cable newi flashed to these shores on Sunday afternoon. Persia, from being cne of th<3 greatest countries in "the worH," lia3 become puny and j insignificant, and there are few, comparatively speaking, who really care what happens in Persia. But there is a charm about antiquity, and the "ancient glory" never quite departs Most of us would rather read about Persia, as it is to-day, than interesting details of a sausage making factory in Mr Lionel James, an officer, has recently written a book "Side Tracks and Bridle Paths," a third of which deals with Persia, and on the first page we are in sight of that vortex of attraction us 1 ; now—Tabriz, which the deposed Shah has been trying to coerce, and which is to-day probably in Russian occupation at the suggestion of the British Government With great and at great risk, Mr Lionel James entered Tabriz, and in a picturesque paragraph he links it up with ancient English history, and yet presents its photograph to-day,, "The antiquity of it all appeals to you," he writes. I "To think that the first of these dirt- ' coloured-walls was built to the order of the ailing Zubaidah, the wife of the Caliph Harour,-al-Raschid, and that in the middle ages the renown •f Tabriz was such that iidward I. of England found it expedient to | send envoys to its then ruler, Chazan Khan. All this brings food, for serious thought. Here it was that men were found who penetrated in conquest to the planV)?f India and the shores of the Mediterranean. Black, and Caspian Seas. A town whose sons were giants when our men " wet'fi semi-barbarians, poorly cultured in war and almost ignorant of the arts and blessings of civilisation. Yet to-day? It is hard to suppress a smile as one lives in their midst. These sons that were very giants have proved the hares in the race of j development between nations. They | have slept on thf> track while the tortoise from the West has seized the prize! 'To-morrow, by the grace/ of God!' In that ona sentence you have Tabriz—nay, you have the whole of Persia." "The reader will be marvelling to himself what all the stew in Tabriz is about," continues Mr James. "There are also many in Tabriz who are similarly at a loss to understand the meaning of it all. Revolution it is possible to understand. A people groaning under the weight of despotic goverrtment, feeling themselves enlightened and morally developed to take ward of their own affairs for the common weal, turn upon the despot who has oppressed them. They demand his acquiescence in their claims to voice their own destinies, or in default, his permanent retirement from their midst. Fortified by the will of the people, they are Strong enough to overthrow such mercenaries as the despot may maintain to bolster up his cause. This is all plain sailing and intelligible. 3t 'is-a 'national movement, not

a local sore. But here it is quite different. Although the language of the legitimate popular movement is freely used, yet in the mouths of the ignorant teachers of this benighted people, and in the ears of the people themselves, these great truths of the enlightened West are but empty phrases."