In the safe at the Netherlands Legation at Teheran th ee
lies, or used to lie, a faded photograph of some former Dutch Minister issuing from the arched gate of his residence for his morning ride. On each side of this gate a Persian sentry stands at the salute. The one on the left is unknown to history ; she one on the right is recognisably Trooper Reza, subsequently King of Kings. It was to Lord Ironside that Reza owed his elevation from the ranks. The British general, inspecting ooe morning a detachment of the Persian Cossacks, was pardonably impressed by the martial bearing and the determined features of the trooper from Savad Kuh. It was as Sartib Reza that, but a few months later, he dashed with his Cossacks along the road from Kasvin and arrested the whole Persian Cabinet So Teheran. It was largely owing to another Englishman, Si Percy Loraine, that he owed his subsequent rise to power. After the collapse of Lord Curzon's Anglo-Persian Treaty of 1919 it Was evident that Persia was heading for complete dis. integration ; the only hope was that she could be renovated under strong leadership from within ; Sir Percy rightly fore- saw that Reza Khan was capable of such regeneration. And thus it came about that the Qajar dynasty was deposed by the Majlis, and Reza Khan was able to affix the great diamond of the Moghuls, the Daria-i-Nur, to his khaki hat.
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