New-York tribune., 1909-07-17
NEARING THE END N PERSIA

The flight of the Shah to an alien asylum, fol-
lowed by the proclaiming of the Crown Prince as
his successor and the appointment of a Regent
presumably marks the beginning Of the end OF
the Persian revolution. 1t is said that the Shahs
act was considered to be tantamOunt to abdic@-
ton as ii well might be. Indeed. we may say, in
view of his shifty and untrustworthy conduct
for the last year. that if he had not given 50
good q ground for it the revOlutionists would
have been justified on any ground in proclaim
ing his deposition. Moreover, he has himself
alone to blame for his fall. Note that the
revolutionists. even when they were marching
on Teheran. did not demand his abdicatiOn
What they did demand that the conSutu-
ri0n should be restored and maintained as the
Shah himself had repeatedly sworn TO do;
that new Cabinet in sympathy with the con
stitution and the people should be appointed;
that the Shahs irregular troops-mere brigandS
should be diSbanded and the regular forces
should be placed under command of the Min
lister of War: that all Russian troops should
retire from Persia, and that provincial gov
ernors should be approved by the local au-
thorities. Had these demands been granted,
the patriots would not have disturbed the
Shah upon the throne Nor could il be argued
that the granting of them would be equivalent
to abdicatiOn, for they really amounted to
nothing more than enforcement Of the cOnst-
tuition. Time until July was given 10 the
Shah to make answer. As he did not do SO,
the march was continued and Teheran was
occupied. with the result now seen.
The attitude of the Russian government has
from the beginning been admirable. 1t co
operated with the British government in trying
to persuade the Shah TO keep faith with the
nation and 10 restore and to maintain the CON
stitution and at the same time it tried to
persuade the insurgent patriots to exercise
moderation and to give the Shah time to
mend his ways. But finding the revouionistS
resolute even in their determination to occupy
the capital itself. it came to the conclusion and
formally declared that the principle of alb
'.solute non-interference in the internal affairs
''of Persia and in the conflict between the Shah
..and the Persian people must remain. now. as
formerly. the basis of its policy in Persia"
That was an excellent policy. well expressed
and we'll maintained The only suspicion of
departure from it-and that undeServed-was
caused by the extraordinary conduct Of Colonel
Liazhoff the military governor of Teheran.
That officer is a Russian who was practically
loaned TO the Persian government by Russia,
but he has from the beginning acted contrary
to the wishes and the policy of Russia, and
in the last few days he has strangely violated
the principles of neutrality. When the revolu-
tionfsts entered the capital he rabed the Rus
sian flag over the buildings which he occupied,
which. under certain circumstances. he had
right 10 do But. obviously. that should have
marked the buildings as strictly neutral, and
the neutrality thus marked would have been
respected by the pa triots. Instead, he began
firing upon them from beneath the shelter of
the Russian flag and then complained because
in return they fred upon the buildings which
We're sheltered by that flag
To that extraordinary conduct Of his most
Of the trouble in Teheran seems to have been
due But the Russian government was in no
way responsible for il It's own activities have
been confined 10 the safeguarding of Russians
and all other foreigners in that part Of Persia
and the maintenance of an avenue Of communi-
cation and traffic between the frontier and the
capital Anything less would have been cul-
pable neglect of duty Anything more would
have been unwaTranted meddling. The Russian
policy IS 10 let the destiny Of Persia be decided
by the Persians. The people appear now TO be
surely winning their struggle for a constitution
and a free representative government and il
would be deplorable if they should be baked
bv outside interference unless in the emergency.
which is not at present probable Of their show
ing themselves unable TO maintain a decent
degree of order and permitting the country to
fall into state Of intolerable chaos and law
lessness