21 NOVEMBER 1908, Page 18

The Persian correspondent of the Tintes announced on Saturday last

that the Constitutionalists in Teheran had just held their first meeting since the coup d'etat. Three thousand Persian Cossacks were present, but they did not intimidate the demonstrators. This success led to further demonstrations, and a telegram from St. Petersburg in the Times of Monday stated that the clergy were calling upon the Shah to redeem his promises. Martial law had been pro- claimed, and the streets of Teheran were occupied by troops. In Wednesday's Times the correspondent said that the Shah, in answer to the recent admonitions from the British and Russian Ministers, had declared that he him- self had "Constitutional tendencies," but that the nation was anti-Constitutional. We did not expect to hear the Spenlovv and Jorkins argument in this quarter, but it ought to be easily exposed. It is reported that the three hundred Cossacks under Colonel Liakhoff who were despatched to Tabriz have joined the Constitutionalists. to a man. Messages from Tabriz and Teheran state that Turkey is about to intervene in Azerbaijan Province. These rumours are obviously false, and are intended to provoke Russian inter- vention, of which we cannot believe there is the least danger.