They probably come from the famishing crowd, directed by the more sinister and well-armed element anxious and ready to take desperate courses. The British Consular Guard of six Indian sowars is quite inadequate for such an emergency. The Russian Consulate possesses fifty Cossacks with a Maxim gun. The French and American Consulate have no guards. Germany possesses only a Consular Agent appointed a few weeks ago, who signalised the occasion of his appointment by offering to the Anjuman, presumably on instructions from Teheran, to act as intermediary between them and the Shah, an offer which the Anjuman refused.
Some retrospect is necessary.
On March 31st, by a curious coincidence, he left the fence of neutrality and decided to throw in his lot with the starving town, thereby sacrificing his appointment in the American school. It may now be admitted, without detriment to the town's situation, that a pitiable and profound demoralization has succeded the former courage and confidence, and that the Anjuman is weak and utterly powerless. The riflemen have never been organized and are now throughly disheartened, while disipline is reduced to the vanishingng point. The military power is supreme in the town, but unable to make any headway against the enemy, neither side being capable or willing to attack the Royalists, who are wisely content with the powerful weapon of starvation. On the strength of my Oxford University Volunteer Corps knowledge, I taught them the rudiments of attack as practised in the British Army - an interesting and not unamusing spectacle.