In my interview with the foreign minister, on the 17th, I was assured
that the Government was not neglecting any measures that would be likely
to attain the object in view.
He told me that every one of my communications had been laid before the
Shah, and he showed to me His Majesty’s autograph remarks on the last,
in which he said that repeated orders had been sent and that he was then
giving further and more imperative commands to have the accomplices
arrested.
I told his excellency that there must be an end to these promises without
results and excuses devoid of reason or justification, for the United
States Government would not understand why, with all the information
which had been supplied and the indication of methods which, if adopted,
would have insured the arrests, nothing had so far been seriously
attempted.
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Tyler to
the Eyn-ed-Dowlah.
American Legation,
Teheran, August 7,
1904.
Your Highness: I have the honor to inform
you that I have just received from his excellency the Secretary of
State a dispatch inclosing certain extracts from letters written
from Urumia with reference to the incriminating behavior of Mirza
Hussein Aga, the chief ecclesiastic in that city, and instructing me
to bring these charges to the notice of His Majesty’s
Government.
These letters produce most serious proofs of the complicity of Mirza
Hussein Aga in the murder of Mr. Labaree and his servant, and
subsequently to the crime giving Mir Ghaffar asylum and protection.
He is furthermore accused of speaking and writing with much
virulence against foreigners, saying that they must be taught a
lesson, especially Doctor Cochran, who gives effective protection to
all Christians. He complains that “a great many foreigners have come
here and are holding their heads too high.”
Your highness knows as well as I do that the greatest crime that a
man can commit against law and society is the taking the life of a
fellow-creature, and the instigator to such a deed is equally
culpable with the active agent, and deserving of the same
punishment.
Mirza Hussein Aga, by inciting to the murder of a person who was
neither a brawler nor a preacher of sedition, nor had in any way
caused him the least [Page 673]
trouble or annoyance, has brought himself into a position with the
lowest and most debased of mankind. And it must be admitted that
such an act can not, either by the laws of humanity, of religion, or
of the state be justified or disregarded. The superiority in social
or official position gives no special privilege for the commission
of crime, but, on the contrary, rather serves to accentuate a deeper
degree of guilt.
The Secretary of State, in transmitting these convincing evidences of
the culpability of this personage, has given instructions that I
shall, in bringing them to the notice of the Persian Government, ask
for a reply to be transmitted as soon as possible for his
information.
On the 2d of August, on the occasion of my interview, in company with
the English minister, with your highness, the influence exerted by
Mirza Hussein Aga, in preventing the arrest of the accomplices of
Mir Ghaffar was pressed upon your attention, and the necessity for
his removal was urgently and strongly insisted upon. In reply you
stated that he had not committed any fault, and was therefore free
from blame.
It is, however, the opinion of every reasonable person that the
inciting to murden and the provoking to acts of aggression against
peacable people under the protection of the Government are among
offenses the greatest known to the law.
I have, therefore, to request that you will take immediate measures
to have this person removed before he commit crimes greater than
these.
I have, etc.,
