Report to the U.S. Secretary of State
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: W. Smith Murray, Report to the U.S. Secretary of State, bahai-library.com.
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Report to the U.S. Secretary of State

W. Smith Murray

1924-08-10

American Consular Service,
Teheran, Persia
August 10, 1924

[stamped:
FILED NO V 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 latter-day 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 guardhouse 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 Bahá'í."

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
extr aordinary 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 Bahá'í. 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 o f 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 Charge 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
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 one 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 Bahá'ís, 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 a rchaic
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 Bahá'ísm 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 wi ll 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 Bahá'í; 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 Bahá'í! 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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-- Report to the U.S. Secretary of State (Used by permission of the curator)