Fall of the Moshir od-Dowleh government

The British chronology of the war records under 26 April 1915 the resignation of the prime minister of Persia, Hassan Pirnia, known by his title of Moshir od-Dowleh. On the same day the foreign minister, Mo’aven od-Dowleh, who had headed Persian diplomacy since February, stepped down. Moshir od-Dowleh had been head of the government only since 14 March. The exact date on which his term ended is uncertain. The Encyclopaedia Iranica speaks in general terms of April 1915, and some lists give 1 May, when his successor took office.

An unacceptable neutrality

Moshir od-Dowleh was the candidate of the Persian parliament, the Majlis, and from the outset enjoyed the favour of neither Russia nor Britain. He intended to pursue a policy of strict neutrality, while both powers expected more of Tehran: decisive steps against the Germans and Turks, who were acting ever more boldly on Persian soil. According to the Encyclopaedia Iranica it was the Entente that forced the prime minister to step down, because he refused to counter effectively the growing German activity in Persia.

The Allies had many reasons for concern. In the south the German agent Wilhelm Wassmuss, the pre-war vice-consul at Bushehr, was inciting the tribes against the British. In March 1915 he was detained by members of the Hayat Davudi tribe, allies of the British. Wassmuss escaped, but a German diplomatic code was left in his baggage and later found its way into the hands of British naval intelligence. Ottoman troops were still in Persian Azerbaijan, and in mid-April Halil Bey’s regular army reached Urmia. The government in Tehran had no forces with which to hinder either side and confined itself to protests.

The powers divide Persia

Britain and Russia did not confine themselves to pressure on the government. In March 1915, when London agreed to give Constantinople to Russia after the war, it demanded in return the inclusion in the British sphere of influence of the neutral zone of Persia defined in the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. This bargaining went on in secret, behind Tehran’s back, and showed better than anything how little the powers cared about Persian neutrality.

The fall of the Moshir od-Dowleh cabinet did not solve this problem. His successor was an aged prince of the Qajar dynasty, Ain od-Dowleh, an old-school politician whom the Russians and the British could accept. Hassan Pirnia himself did not leave politics: he headed the government three more times, in 1920–1923.