Vosugh od-Dowleh becomes prime minister of Persia

The British chronology of the war records under 29 August 1916 that the prime minister of Persia, the Sepahsalar, resigned and was succeeded by Vosugh od-Dowleh, who also took over the foreign ministry. Persian lists of governments confirm this date: they end the Sepahsalar’s premiership and begin Vosugh’s term of office on 7 Shahrivar 1295 in the Iranian calendar, that is, precisely 29 August. Some Persian accounts, however, give an earlier start to his government, 18 Mordad, that is, 9 August. At the foreign ministry Vosugh replaced Prince Sarem od-Dowleh.

A change at a bad moment

The Sepahsalar’s cabinet, formed at the beginning of March, had for half a year maintained a “benevolent neutrality” towards the Entente, as the British general Percy Sykes wrote. On 3 and 5 August it exchanged notes with the British and Russian ministers, Charles Marling and Etter, on expanding the Persian Cossack Brigade in the north to 11,000 men and on creating an equally large force under British officers in the south, the future South Persia Rifles. The two powers were to lend Persia 200,000 tomans for their upkeep. The government promised to submit these arrangements to parliament, but the Majlis had not sat since November 1915.

Meanwhile in the west of the country the war had turned against the Allies. The Turks retook Kermanshah, and on 10 August they took Hamadan. General Nikolai Baratov’s Russians fell back to the road to Qazvin, and the legations in Tehran were reckoning with evacuation. In this situation the government came to be headed by a politician regarded as an advocate of cooperation with Britain.

Who Vosugh od-Dowleh was

Hassan Vosugh, who bore the title Vosugh od-Dowleh, came from an influential family of officials from Ashtian. His younger brother was Ahmad Qavam, later prime minister many times over. In 1906 he sat in the first parliament, elected after the Constitutional Revolution, and was its deputy speaker. As foreign minister in 1911 he belonged to the government that accepted the Russian ultimatum and expelled the American financial adviser Morgan Shuster from the country. In August 1914 he resigned from his post, and in August 1915 he returned to the government as finance minister.

The new prime minister continued his predecessor’s policy. Sykes recalled that Vosugh’s cabinet maintained a “benevolent neutrality” towards Britain. On 12 September the Russian minister sent him the text of the August arrangements on the military forces, and in March 1917 the Persian government officially recognised the South Persia Rifles. The cabinet resigned at the end of May 1917, and its successors withdrew that recognition. Vosugh returned to power in August 1918. A year later he concluded an agreement with Britain which his opponents regarded as an attempt to subordinate Persia to London. Accused of having taken British money, he left the country, and the agreement never came into force.