Identifier: persianprobleme00whig (find matches)
Title: The Persian problem; an examination of the rival positions of Russia and Great Britain in Persia, with some account of the Persian gulf and the Bagdad railway
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Whigham, Henry James, 1869-
Subjects: Baghdad Railway Eastern question (Central Asia)
Publisher: London Isbister
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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tleast of the most powerful men in the Persiancapital. Last, but not least, of the four predominant figuresis Mr. Naus, the Director-General of Customs forPersia. In most other countries the controller ofcustoms is merely a paid official of the Government,entrusted with certain routine work which has nopolitical significance. In a country like Persia, how-ever, where the customs have been placed in thehands of a foreign staff, and where the moneycollected at the ports is almost the only availablesecurity for the raising of foreign loans, the con-troller may, if he likes, become a political factor ofimportance. There is nothing, for example, toprevent Mr. Naus filling in Persia the place whichin China has for- so many years been occupied bySir Bobert Hart. Indeed, the possibilities in thecase of Mr. Naus are even greater; for while thefamous I.G. has always shown what is perhaps aconstitutional disinclination to invest his office witha political significance, his Belgian counterpart in
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TEHERAN 325 Persia strikes one as being of a different and moreambitious character. Mr. Naus is a large powerfulman of the fair Flemish type, with a big head on hisbroad shoulders, and a strong, not to say cruel, jaw.His utterance, sharp, incisive, and slightly guttural,with an almost ferocious rolling of the rs, leaves nodoubt on the mind of the hearer as to the intentionof the speaker. To converse with him for fiveminutes is to be convinced of his executive ability,and his power to control his subordinates. Mr. Naus record speaks for itself. Brought outto Persia from the Customs Department of Belgium,in 1898, he first of all undertook the collecting ofduties at Tabriz and Kermanshah. So successfulwas the first attempt to do away with the pernicioussystem of farming the customs, that the experimentwas soon extended, until in 1900 nearly all the portsof entry were included in the new regime. By theend of the twelvemonth, March 1900 to March1901, the customs revenue had increased 50 pe

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