A very odd item of intelligence has come from Persia.
The owners of the Tobacco Monopoly having been deprived of it for reasons of State—that is, because the Shah was afraid of popular rebellion—have been promised a compensation of half-a-million. There is no half-million to pay with, except in the Shah's private hoards ; and as he will not waste them on State debts, the Government is in perplexity. The Russian Treasury has therefore offered to lend the money to Persia at 6 per cent. The anti-Russian parties in Teheran are naturally alarmed, and declare that with such an instru- ment of pressure, St. Petersburg will hold Persia in its hands. That is exaggeration. Persia can pay 230,000 a year well enough, and if it pays regularly, the money to pay off the debt will easily be found in open market. Indeed, we are not quite sure whether the whole story is not a fiction of the Persian Court, invented to induce the British Government to press forbearance upon British capitalists. Russia has no money to spare, and the Shah's bankers have.
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