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Report on Murder of Consul Imbrie in Iran on Charges of being a Baha'i
American Consular Service,
Teheran, Persia
August 10, 1924
[stamped: FILED NOV 14 1924 N]
[stamped: ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE OCT 14 1924 A-3]
[stamped: Department of State Oct 13 1924 Division of Near Eastern Affairs]
[stamped: UNDER SECRETARY, OCT 2 1924 DEPT. OF STATE]
[stamped: ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE OCT 16 1924 A-4]
[ handwritten: Instruction Drafted 10/6/24 accepted.stamped beneath:
October 13 1924]
[stamped: No. ? INDEX BUREAU Rec'd OCT 13 1924 Dept. of State]
[stamped: INDEX BUREAU; handwritten over stamp: P.B. 123 ? / 298]
[stamped: DEPT. OF STATE NOV 12 1924 Division of Foreign Service
Administration]
SECRET AND STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
The Honorable
The Secretary of State,
Washington
Sir: -
I have the honor to bring to the attention of the Department CERTAIN PHASES
OF THE MURDEROUS ASSAULT WHICH CULMINATED IN THE DEATH OF VICE CONSUL
ROBERT WHITNEY IMBRIE IN TEHERAN on July 18, 1924, which, it is my
impression, have not yet been communicated to the Department and which, I
trust, will be of assistance in clarifying in some degree the
circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
It is generally admitted that the killing of Major Imbrie was attended
with a viciousness and savagery practically unknown in latterday Persian
history; the Persians have not been slow to point out that their race has
not, in the past, been given to violence and that even during the turmoil
of the Persian Revolution of 1906 the greatest self-control was exhibited
in order not to harm in any way foreign residents of the country. This
fact makes the crime all the more remarkable and the necessity
[page 2]
for penetrating into its deeper significance all the more imperative.
It is to be noted that the so-called miracle which took place in Teheran
some two weeks previous to the assault was universally regarded by all
Europeans and by most intelligent Persians as an absurdity, and there
could not have been the slightest reason to believe that a visit to that
"sacred" spot would incur any danger. It is furthermore to be noted that
the alleged attempt on the part of Major Imbrie to take photographs at the
Sakheh Khaneh could in no way be ascribed as the motive for the murderous
attack at the Kossak Khaneh, inasmuch as the latter is more than a mile
away from the former and the mob, numbering more than two thousand
persons, which gathered as the carriage proceeded to the latter point,
could not possibly have been informed of the photographing episode; hence
the latter cannot be presumed to have inflamed the mob.
It is of extraordinary significance that the attacks upon Major Imbrie
and Mr. Seymour should have taken place - first, directly in front of
the large entrance to the Kossak Khaneh within a few feet of the guard
house at the gate, and second, upon the operation tables of the Police
Headquarters Hospital, which is perhaps not more than a few hundred yards
from the gate of the Kossak Khaneh.
That the Government's case in the affair is totally nil and nonexistent
ill be observed from the following points: -
1. Although the situation in Teheran since the collapse of the republican
movement has, with regard to law and order, been a critical one, and
although the Government might have realized the seriousness at this time
of the Sakheh Khaneh demonstrations, the Prime Minister admits that he
had issued orders, previous to the tragedy, that both the police and
military should abstain from intervention of any kind in religious
demonstrations and that under no circumstances was a shot to be fired;
hence the situation of two men, attacked
[page 3]
by a mob of two thousand fanatics, left to their fate.
2. Although the attack upon Imbrie and Seymour lasted about half and hour,
at a spot within a stone's throw of both the Police Headquarters and the
Kossak Khaneh, where both police and military reserves were at hand, no
attempt was made to intimidate the mob.
3. The participation of the military and of at least one officer in the
assault is an incontrovertible fact. This has been verified in the first
deposition taken from Seymour, in which he stoutly affirmed that the
officer-of-the-day was one of the first to strike him. Furthermore, I was
confidentially informed by an officer of the Persian Army, who was an
intimate friend of mine, that he was personally acquainted with the
officer-of-the-day in charge of the guard at the gate, one Lieutenant
Janmamad, and that the latter had freely confessed to him that not only
the men in his charge on the fatal morning had rushed out and joined in
the attack, but that he himself had participated. When questioned as to
why he did do, he said, "I had no idea it was the American Consul. I
thought it was a dog of a Bahai."
At this point it is well to cite the following proofs that his identity
was known to some, at least, of his assailants: -
a) When Major Imbrie's carriage was stopped at the gate of the Kossak
Khaneh, he drew out his card and handed it to a police officer, stating
that he was the American Consul and that he could be seen at any time at
the American Consulate.
b) Major Imbrie was accompanied by a "kavass" of the American Consulate,
wearing the American insignia on his hat and buttons and coat. Both the
insignia and buttons were ripped off early in the attack by someone who
would appear to have extraordinary presence of mind.
c) When Seymour was dragged from the carriage, which had already passed
through the Kossak Khaneh gate, he was asked by the
[page 4]
officer-of-the-day who he was and where he was going. He stated, "I am
an American, and I want to go to the American Consulate"; whereupon the
officer struck him, saying, "I think you will be living here for a while."
d) As the Department will have already noted in the deposition of Issak,
the Chaldean servant of Doctor Packard, who was at the scene of the
assault, the latter shouted repeatedly to the mob, to the military, and
to the police, that they were killing the American Consul and that he was
not a Bahai. Hence, the fiction that there could have any misapprehension
as to the person upon whom the violence of the mob was being vented is
totally exploded.
To return now to the officer-of-the-day, Lieutenant Janmamad, I believe the
Department will agree with me that the government showed a reprehensible
negligence in that his arrest was not immediately ordered after the tragedy,
inasmuch as it stands to reason that he and his men, given the fact that
the incident happened before his very door, could not but have been at
least cognizant of it. It was not until July 26, eight days later, that
his arrest was promised, after I had demanded it. It is furthermore to be
noted that his name does not occur in the police report of the crime,
made on July 26, and that on august 7, when I called the matter to the
attention of the Foreign Minister he seemed surprised that he had heard
nothing of it and, after noting it down, promised to take immediate action.
Although there appears to be ample evidence that a considerable number of
the military participated in the attack, only one soldier, named Morteza,
of the Army Transport, had by July 26 been arrested, and apparently none
of the guard of the day. The police report of the above mentioned date
states, "Several other soldiers have also, according to investigations
made, taken part in the beating and insulting. The Emergency Commission is
searching for them."
[page 5]
The American Minister, shortly after the murder, received authoritative
information, to the effect that Reza Khan had threatened "to cut the
tongue out of any officer or man who opened his mouth with regard to the
affair." That is was his original determination to shield the military is
furthermore evident from a conversation which he had about the same time
with Mr. Soppier, the Sinclair representative, in which he flew into a
rage at a suggestion of the latter that the military were involved.
4. When, finally, Imbrie and Seymour were rescued by the police and placed
in an automobile to be transported to the hospital, the authorities were
either unwilling or unable to prevent the crowd from beating and assaulting
the senseless men in the automobile.
5. When the two Americans finally reached the hospital and had been carried
to the operation tables, the police authorities, in their own headquarters,
were again either unwilling or unable to prevent the storming of the
hospital by the savage mob, which was led by Seyed Hossein, followed
directly by a group of Cossacks with drawn swords.
I, myself, through Dr. Packard, heard the statement of one Ali, the hospital
attendant who was present when the wounded men were brought in, and who
stated that he was unable to prevent the mob from entering the operation
room. He showed me the tiles of the floor which had been torn up and
shattered on the body of Imbrie, as well as a chair which was smashed in
assaulting him. although Seymour was lying in a room through which the mob
had to pass, he was spared further assault because the mob was told that
he was dead.
The Department is already in possession of the deposition which I took
from doctor Jalal Shaffa, one of the native physicians at the American
Hospital, who was one of the first to arrive at the Police Hospital and
to whom a policeman present volunteered the information that he was unable
to
[page 6]
hold back the mob because they were led by Cossacks, armed with sabres.
The truth of this statement was, on the same day, verified by the
admission of Lieutenant Nehmattollah, a police officer on the Investigation
Commission, to the effect that the latter attack was led by Cossacks, but
that they were fired to vengeance by Seyed Hossein, crying that he would
"have the blood of this infidel dog to avenge the death of Hossein and his
grandfather."
FOREIGN POLITICAL BACKGROUND
Almost simultaneously with the killing, the rumor arose in the city that
it was the result of oil intrigues and that the mob believed it had got
Soper, the Sinclair representative. In this connection I may state that
such was apparently the belief of the authorities at the hospital upon
the arrival of Mrs. Imbrie, inasmuch as they refused permission to her
and Doctor Packard to enter and insisted that Imbrie was not her husband.
Almost immediately also, the hue and cry against the British was taken
up in the Persian press, and it was openly intimated that they were
responsible for the crime. In this connection, I have positive information
that it is the firm conviction of the Prime Minister that the British are
responsible for the encouragement and subsidizing of the Sakheh Khaneh
storm center, if not for the actual crime itself.
On the day of Major Imbrie's funeral the British Charge d'Affaires, Mr.
Esmond Ovey, who had already gotten wind of the above rumors, solemnly
warned Zoka-ol-Molk, the Foreign Minister, that the control of the press
must be tightened and that he would not tolerate any publication of such
rumors. The warning was apparently ineffective inasmuch as the next few
days brought a torrent of abuse and the vilest insinuations against "the
land of the lion and the unicorn."
Thereupon the British Chargé rushed, with his oriental secretary,
[page 7]
Mr. Harvard, to the Prime Minister's country house, and delivered an
ultimatum to him, that categorical instructions be issued to suppress
any paper in Teheran intimating Great Britain's participation in the
affair. The Prime Minister was at first obdurate and stated that the
whole matter would first have to be investigated; but he finally
yielded and published a dementi, after which the situation, as far as
the British were concerned, was for the moment relieved.
Another and still more tense situation was created, however, when the
Persian authorities attempted a few days later to arrest Mostafa Khan,
the Persian private secretary of Mr. W. C. Fairley, the Anglo-Persian
representative in Teheran. The attempt was met by a still more vigorous
intervention on the part of Mr. Ovey, who told Reza Khan [Reza Shah] that
any such act on his part would be regarded by the British Government as
proof positive that he considered the rumors concerning the British true.
I may state at this point that the young man in question, Mostafa Khan, a
graduate of Columbia University and pretended friend of America, is
positively known to have engaged, for the sake of his employer, in the
most unsavory and unwarranted attacks on everything American, in order
to prevent at all costs the passage of the Sinclair oil bill. I am reliably
informed that he has, during the last critical days, offered to several
members of the Mejliss, whose names are known to me, a bribe of eight
tomans a month, if they will abstain from their duties and thus break
the quorum. I furthermore know that he approached the Deputy from Isfahan
and used the novel argument, as to why he should vote against the oil bill,
that the American people, "enraged at the treason of the late President
Harding for having sold them out to the Sinclair Oil Company," had torn
open his grave and burned his
[page 8]
body. This is the man who, though a Persian subject, enjoys the protection
of the British Legation.
It was clear from the outset that the Russians intended to leave no stone
unturned in order to push the responsibility for the crime into the
shoes of the British. On the day of the funeral on of the Secretaries of
the Bolshevist Legation, Mr. Walden, stated to a personal friend of mine,
Mr. Swiminoff, who was educated and has lived many years in America, that
the whole thing had been engineered by the British in order to prevent
passage of the oil bill. Both the local Persian press, enjoying the
Russian subsidy, as well as the organ of the Russian Telegraphic Agency,
"Rosta", launched a violent campaign against the British, containing open
accusation. The British Charge d'Affairs immediately wired for instructions
to London, and thereafter called upon the Russian Minister, and, after a
three and a half hours' conference, was unable to persuade him to make a
frank retraction of these statements. The best that could be done was a
half-hearted statement on the following day in the "Rosta", to the effect
that the published reports "were not the individual opinions of the
editor."
As I pointed out to the Department in my telegram No. 8 of July 29, the
attitude of the Russians with regard to the affair was fully clarified
by their behavior in the three meetings of the Diplomatic Corps which
followed the murder.
In the first, they strongly objected to any reference whatsoever to the
military, as having participated, and insisted, in addition, that the
minorities clause be added, condemning religious fanaticism.
In the second, they moved that the Diplomatic Corps unanimously accept
the Government's reply to the protest drawn up in the first meeting,
despite the fact that this body was therein informed that its protest was
unjustified. After vainly attempting to block any further conferences,
the Russian Delegation rose in the midst of the third session and
[page 9]
walked out when it was agreed by the rest that the American note of
protest to the Persian Government was not to be read or discussed. At
this last meeting, the protocol of the two preceding meetings was drawn
up, a copy of which the Russians attempted to obtain from the Dean, the
Turkish Ambassador, who flatly refused to accede to their demand.
I have already pointed out to the Department, in my telegram No. 7 of
July 28, that the Russian Delegation in Teheran has shown a curious
interest in what they stated to have been Major Imbrie's "anti-Bolshevist
record" in Russia.
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND
In the larger analysis, it may safely be said that the recrudescence of
clerical power in Persia in the last two years has supplied the background
and, in large part, the motivation for the tragedy which has just occurred.
It is worth noting that never since the Persian Revolution of 1906, when
the clergy was terrified into immobility by the public execution at the
hands of the Revolutionaries of their Chief Mujtahed, Sheik Fazlullah,
have the clergy been in possession of such dangerous power as is theirs
today. So complete was their eclipse, that by 1918 it was possible to
disregard their constitutional and religious right to interpret and
execute the laws of the land in accordance with the Koran when a new Penal
Code, based on the "Code of Napoleon", was drafted and put into temporary
execution pending its consideration and acceptance by the Mejliss. To
anyone with even a slight knowledge of the corruption of the Persian Law
Courts, this was an amazing act of progress.
It was not until the late summer of 1922, when the struggle between Reza
Khan, then Minister of War, and the then Prime Minister, Ghavam-os-Saltaneh,
had reached a critical stage, that the latter turned to the Mullahs and
enlisted their support in an attempt to break the menacing power of the
War Minister. Be it said to Reza Khan's credit, that although he
[page 10]
is an uneducated man and has evinced a lamentable moral weakness in all
the crises of his career, he is (fortunately for Persia) religiously
tolerant and enlightened, and has freely made use in the Army and the
Government of the intelligent services of the Bahais, who may well be
considered the only hope of Islam.
On the occasion above mentioned, Ghavam-os-Saltaneh, in order to
reinforce his political position, then insecure, encouraged the Mullahs
to make their notorious "Twelve Demands", among which was the abolition
of the Penal Code of 1918, obviously necessitating a return to the archaic
religious courts. A second demand was the establishment of the Mullah's
Committee of Veto in the Mejliss, which is unfortunately provided for
in Article 2 of the Supplement to the Constitution, but which has
remained until the present time a dead letter.
To a close observer of Persian affairs it is beyond question that, had
Reza Khan succeeded in establishing the Republic in March of this year,
it would have been the death knell to the power of the clergy, which the
latter realized only too well. I furthermore know personally that it was
his firm determination to have proceeded, immediately upon the establishment
of the Republic, with a revision of the Constitution which would have
separated church from state and secularized the law.
It is curious that, for the first time since the establishment of
Bolshevism in Russia, Great Britain and the Russians joined hands
cordially in support of the clergy last March, in order to break the
power of the Prime Minister and annihilate the Republic. It was they
who subsidized and demonstrated in the gardens of the Mejliss on the
day before the Republic was to be declared, and it was the fatal moral
weakness of the Prime Minister in handling this demonstration which
demolished at a blow his prestige with the Persians as
[page 11]
"The dreaded and infallible Reza".
The clergy immediately rose to the occasion, and they, who had the day
before been suppliants, now became dictators. They directed what steps
the Prime Minister should take thenceforth, that he should proceed
forthwith to Qum for consultation with the exiled Mesopotamian Mullahs,
who ordered him to publish his famous decree forbidding further discussion
of the Republic.
Since that time Reza Khan's political enemies have taken advantage of the
restored prestige of the clergy to raise the hue and cry of Bahaism
against him, the danger of which accusation in present-day densely
ignorant Persia is by no means to be underestimated. To many observers on
the spot, the Prime Minister's patience under these trying circumstances
has appeared incomprehensible, and he has often been criticized for not
having met the issue squarely and either smashed his opposition or gone
down in defeat.
The reason for his inaction is unquestionably the fact that he has
realized that any successful demonstrations against him at the present
time may compromise his "American program", which contains, of course, the
passage of the oil bill. He has realized, furthermore, that it was a
mistake to have proceeded with his republic last March before his program
was completed, and it is now definitely known that he is determined at all
costs to keep the Mejliss open until the oil bill has passed, after which
there is every reason to believe the Deputies will be immediately dismissed
and Reza Khan will assume dictatorial powers in the country. The
realization of this situation on the part of the clerical opposition has
incited them more than anything else to oppose the passage of the bill.
From a knowledge of Persian affairs, it is impossible to believe that
the so-called miracle, which occurred some two weeks previous to Imbrie's
death, was a spontaneous occurrence.
[page 12]
It had the earmarks from the beginning of an artificially inspired movement,
of which the organized powers of evil were quick to take advantage in order
to create disorder for the Government. It is well-known that large sums
of money were paid to a committee organized at the Sakheh Khaneh, to
which even peasants made contributions in sheep and grain. The sums
collected are variously estimated from five to twenty thousand tomans. It
is generally believed that the big grandees of Persia generously donated,
among them being Vossough-ed-Dowleh, the notorious Anglophile Prime
Minister of the Anglo-Persian Agreement, Ghavam-os-Saltaneh, his brother,
now in exile, and Farman Farma, the most notorious of British agents. Reza
Khan found himself faced with a situation before which he was powerless.
The fanaticism of the crowd was so incited by the continuous preaching of
the Mullahs that any act on his part would have been interpreted as
treason to Islam and prima facie evidence that he was a Bahai; hence
his unfortunate orders to the military and the police not to intervene
under any circumstances in religious demonstrations and under no
circumstances to fire.
It is clear that such a spot as the Sakheh Khaneh would be chosen by both
foreign and domestic troublemakers as an advantageous station for their
spies and agents, and the secret of this affair will never be fully
revealed until the true character and affiliations of the hangers-on at
the Sakheh Khaneh have been ascertained. It is obvious that the man in
the crowd at the Sakheh Khaneh who had the presence of mind to spring to
his feet the moment he saw Imbrie and cry, "That is a Bahai! He has
poisoned the water of our Sakheh Khaneh and killed Musselmen women and
children!" is of more than passing importance to the prosecution. It has
been stated that this man is the same Seyed Hossein who stormed the
operation room with the Cossacks; but I have not received confirmation
of this.
[page 13]
Viewing the tragedy, in its larger issue, one is led to the inevitable
conclusion that, unless Reza Khan is able and willing to purge the military
of its criminal lawlessness, and, unless the malign power of the clergy
can be broken forever in the land, there is every reason to believe that
the killing of Imbrie is but a foretaste of more terrible events to come.
I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
(signed) W. Smith Murray
Second Secretary of Legation
In charge of Consulate
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