At a dinner given in London to the Persian Foreign
Minister last week Lord Curzon spoke of the new Anglo-Persian Agree- ment in terms which ought to allay all suspicion about that instrument abroad as well as in this country. He pointed out that the " independence of Persia " is " a British as well as a Persian interest." He explained, however, that our aim is not only British but international—to establish in the Middle East, where everything is more or less in a state of dissolution, a region of tranquillity and strength. Great Britain also desired to prevent the embarrassment which would be caused by another Mohammedan State tumbling into ruins. No nation could hold out a helping hand to Persia so appropriately as Great Britain. There was no ulterior design whatever. It had been suggested that the Anglo-Persian Agreement went behind the League of Nations. As a matter of fact, the Agreement provided that as soon as the League came into existence the Agreement would be laid before it for sanction.
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