In the land of the lion and sun, or, modern Persia

by C. J. Wills

And now came the first funds from England from the Persian Relief Committee. In each town the money was husbanded and relief given in the way most efficient and economical. Money was found to be the most safe plan, at all events in Shiraz, of which I speak from experience, for any attempt to buy bread in quantities failed, and caused an immediate rise in price. Very many applicants were sent away; relief in the shape of a numbered ticket, entitling the bearer, whose person was described in a book kept for the purpose, to weekly relief in money, was given to the utterly destitute. The difficulty of deciding on the claims of the various applicants was great, and in many cases which had to be denied permanent relief, temporary alms were given.

A large house was rented, and in it were placed all the deserted orphans found in the streets; these were mostly the children of villagers, though some were those of townspeople. These children were plainly but comfortably clothed in the ordinary dress of well-to-do Persian villagers, and well and regularly fed. They were placed under the care of an intelligent and humane Persian, who really did his duty to them, and were regularly inspected by the members of the Relief Committee; also they were frequently seen at unexpected times. The poor emaciated bundles of rags soon developed into strong, healthy children, and the regular food, comfortable quarters, and good clothes did wonders. Most of the staff took one or two into their service.

Seven years after, one of my two, who were taken as stable-helps, was getting pay from me at the rate of thirty shillings a month, and was my head groom, and would anywhere obtain that pay. Two were taken as markers in the billiard-room, and are now respectable servants. As the famine ceased, the unclaimed orphans were apprenticed to good trades, or placed in the houses of wealthy Persians as servants. No attempt at proselytism was made, but a Persian priest was engaged to teach the usual rudiments of reading, writing, and the Koran.

Many villagers came in and claimed their children, and these were often loath to leave their clean quarters and good food, to return to hard drudgery and rags in their native villages.

It may be safely said that no deaths from starvation took place in Shiraz after the arrival of the first instalment of relief money from England. Of course, the application of the funds was carried out irrespective of the religion of the applicants; and this application was easier in Shiraz than in Ispahan. The Armenian community in Shiraz were very few, and only some four families needed relief; while, on the contrary, the Jews were many and terribly poor.

As to the labour question, a few of the more able-bodied were set to the nominal work of picking the stones off the high-road, but no heavy labour was insisted on. In the winter, too, the snow having blocked the streets, the poor were employed in removing it for the general good.

I happened to go to Ispahan, and also assisted in the distribution there. The Ispahanis are much more provident than the people of Shiraz, and I do not think the distress would have been so great but for the influx of villagers. At Koomishah, the third stage from Ispahan towards Shiraz, the effects of the famine were very severe, and I was glad to be able to distribute some four hundred kerans of the Poor Fund, both going and coming, there. Of course this amount did not go far, and I was besieged in the post-house by the hungry crowd of women and children; the sum was too small to permit of giving anything to the men. First we admitted all the aged women, and gave them a keran and a half each; then each child was given a keran, and, when they had secreted it, the whole number were passed out and the gates closed. From the roof of the post-house I perceived a big burly villager, who was employed in robbing the children, as they went out, of their slender store, even throwing them on the ground and taking the coin from their mouths. The other villagers, of whom there was a large mob, merely laughed, but did not interfere. But getting down from the back wall of the post-house by means of horse-ropes, the postmaster, my groom and I succeeded in catching the fellow, and dragging him into the post-house, and then the post-boys gave him a good hiding by my order, and we took the money away. He, of course, complained to the local Governor, who requested an explanation. I called on him and told him of the fellow’s misdeeds, and, much to his astonishment, the man in power gave the ruffian a liberal bastinado.

Terrible stories are extant of what happened in certain places, and there is no doubt of the truth of many of these. That the people ate grass and the carrion, that they lived on the blood at the public slaughter-houses, that they, having sold all, also sold their children, is within my personal knowledge. Cannibalism, too, was proved. In fine, had it not been for the exertions of the Persian Relief Committee in London, the ravages of the famine would have only ended in the temporary depopulation of the south and centre of Persia.

Each great personage in Ispahan and Shiraz did his best to preserve his own dependents from starvation; but there being no kind of organisation among the Persians, and transit-rates being prohibitive, and the roads unsafe, small local famines were frequent, and the ravages of typhoid and diphtheria—the latter previously unknown in the country—were very great.

Just now an accident to the Prince Zil-es-Sultan took place. He was out shooting near Shiraz, and having charged one barrel of his gun twice, the weapon burst, tearing the palm of his hand and the ball of the thumb. I was called in to attend him, and was fortunate enough to preserve the hand. For this his Royal Highness was very grateful, and during the whole of my time in Persia showed me many kindnesses, besides giving me an extremely liberal fee, even for a king’s son: he compelled his vizier also to give me one. He even insisted on decorating me with the star of the Lion and Sun; but as Englishmen in Government employ are not allowed to accept the decorations of foreign Governments without special permission, the honour, much coveted among the Persians, was not of much benefit to me. I got it in a very public and sudden manner, and as the occasion of giving it was sufficiently curious, I may as well describe it.