found on
guard a number of Persian Cossacks of the Cossack Brigade. On seeing
the order of confiscation, these men retired. My men then took
possession and began making an official inventory. An hour later, two
Russian vice-consuls, in full uniform, arrived with twelve Russian
Cossacks from the Russian Consulate guard, and with imprecations,
abuse, and threats to kill, drove off my men at the point of their
rifles. Later in the day, these same vice-consuls actually arrested
other small parties of Treasury gendarmes, took them on mules through
the streets of Teheran to the Russian Consulate-General, and after
insulting and threatening them with death if they ever returned to the
confiscated property, allowed them to go.

On hearing this, I wrote and telegraphed to my friend, M.
Poklewski-Koziell, the Russian minister, calling his attention to the
outrageous actions of his Consul-General, M. Pokhitanow, and asking the
minister to give orders to prevent any further unpleasantness on the
following day, when I would again execute the government's order. The
next day I sent a force of one hundred gendarmes in charge of two
American Treasury officials, and the order was executed.

Two hours after we were in peaceable possession of the property, the
same two Russian vice-consuls drove up to the gate and began insulting
and abusing the Persian Treasury guards, endeavoring, of course, to
provoke the gendarmes into some act against them. In other words,
finding that they had lost in the matter of retaining possession of the
property, these Russian officials deliberately sought to provoke my
gendarmes into something that they could construe as an affront to
Russian consular authority. The men, however, had received such strict
and repeated instructions that they refused even to answer. They paid
no attention to the taunts and abuse of these two dignified Russian
officials, who thereupon drove off and perjured themselves to the
effect that they had been affronted--in other words, that the incident
which they had gone there to provoke actually had occurred. These false
statements were reported to St. Petersburg by M. Pokhitanow
independently of his minister, who, I have the strongest reason to
believe, entirely disavowed the Consul-General's actions. The Russian
government thereupon publicly discredited its minister and demanded
from the Persian government an immediate apology for something that had
never occurred. The apology, af