They say (" they " being the correspondents of the
Times and other papers) that the Shah does not like being tame elephant, that at Berlin he would not submit to several Court etiquettes, that he actually touched the arm of the. Empress to call her attention to something at the theatre, that he has some odd notion, derived from the history, not of his dynasty, but of his throne, that he is King of kings in some substantive sense, and that he left Berlin unescorted by one of his Imperial hosts. He was not persona grata at all, and was snubbed for not being Russian enough. All that is gossip, but it is half con- firmed by Mr. Gladstone's laughing remark that we must not put the Shah in chains, but let him decide his programme for himself. That is sensible enough, but at least let him have men -with him who understand Persian, and are not too dignified to be worried. He wants a Secretary quite as much as a Court, and there must be scores of Anglo-Persians in London.
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