Samarkand (37 page)

A week after his arrival the first crisis broke out. Amongst the hundreds of people who came every day to welcome the Americans,
some asked Shuster when he was planning to visit the English and Russian delegations. His response was evasive, but the questions
became insistent and the affair leaked out and gave rise to animated
discussions in the bazaar: should the American pay courtesy calls to the legations or not? The legations let it be known that
they had been belittled and the climate became strained. Given the role that he had played in bringing Shuster, Fazel was
particularly embarrassed by this diplomatic hitch which was threatening to put his whole mission at stake. He asked me to
intervene.

I therefore went to see my compatriot at the Atabak Palace, a white stone building, the fine columns of which were reflected
in a pond and which consisted of thirty huge rooms, some furnished in the oriental and some in the European manner, filled
with carpets and
objets d’art.
All around was an immense park crossed by streams and peppered with man-made lakes – a real Persian paradise where the noises
of the city were filtered out by the song of the cicadas. It was one of the most beautiful residences in Teheran. It had belonged
to a former prime minister before being bought up by a rich Zoroastrian merchant who was a fervant supporter of the constitution
and who had graciously placed it at the American’s disposal.

Shuster received me on the steps. Having recovered from the exhaustion of the journey, he seemed to me quite young. He was
only thirty-four years old and did not look it. And I had thought that Washington would send over someone who looked like
Father Time!

‘I have come to speak to you about this business with the legations.’

‘You too!’

He pretended to be amused.

‘I do not know,’ I stated, ‘whether you are aware of just how serious this question of protocol has become. Don’t forget,
we are in the country of intrigue!’

‘No one enjoys intrigue more than I do!’

He laughed again but stopped suddenly and became as serious as his position demanded of him.

‘Mr Lesage, it is not just a question of protocol. It is a question of principles. Before I accepted this post, I briefed
myself thoroughly on the dozens of foreign experts who came to this country before me. Some of them lacked neither competance
nor
goodwill, but they all failed. Do you know why? Because they fell into the trap I am being asked to fall into today. I have
been named Treasurer General of Persia by the Parliament of Persia. It is thus normal for me to signal my arrival to the Shah,
the regent and the government. I am an American and can thus also go to visit the charming Mr Russel. But why am I being demanded
to make courtesy calls to the Russians, the English, the Belgians and the Austrian?

‘I will tell you: because they want to show to everyone, to the Persian people who expect so much from the Americans, to the
Parliament which took us on inspite of all pressure put on it, that Morgan Shuster is a foreigner like all foreigners, a
farangi.
Once I have made my first visits, the invitations will come pouring in; diplomats are courteous, welcoming and cultivated
people, they speak the languages I know and they play the same games. I could live happily here, Mr Lesage, between games
of bridge, tea, tennis, horse-riding and masked balls and when I go home in three years’ time I would be rich, happy, tanned
and in the best of health. However, that is not why I came, Mr Lesage.’

He was almost shouting. An unseen hand, perhaps his wife’s, discretely shut the door to the sitting-room. He seemed not to
have noticed and carried on:

‘I came with a very precise mission: to modernise Persia’s finances. These men have called upon us because they have faith
in our institutions and the way we handle affairs. I have no intention of disappointing them. Nor of misleading them. I come
from a Christian nation, Mr Lesage, and that means something for me. What image do the Persians have of the Christian nations
today? Ultra-Christian England which appropriates their petrol and ultra-Christian Russia which imposes its will on them according
to the cynical law of the survival of the fittest? Who are these Christians who have frequented here? Swindlers, arrogant,
godless men and Cossacks. What idea do you want them to have of us? In what world are we going to live together? Do we have
no choice to offer other than to be our slaves or our enemies? Could they not be our partners and equals? Some of them fortunately
continue to believe
in us and our values, but how much longer will they be able to muzzle the thousands who liken Europeans to demons?

‘What will the Persia of tomorrow be like? That depends on how we behave and on the example which we offer. Baskerville’s
sacrifice has made people forget the greed of many other Europeans. I have the greatest esteem for him, but I assure you I
have no intention of dying; quite simply, I wish to be honest. I shall serve Persia as I would serve an American company.
I shall not despoil Persia but I will make every effort to clean it up and make it prosper, and shall respect its government
but without bowing and scraping.’

Stupidly, tears had started to pour down my face. Shuster fell silent and watched me warily and a little confused.

‘Would you please excuse me if I have hurt you, without meaning to, by my tone of voice or my words.’

I stood up and held out my hand.

‘You have not hurt me, Mr Shuster, I am simply shattered. I am going to report your words to my Persian friends and their
reaction will not be any different from mine.’

When I left I ran to the Baharistan; I knew that I would find Fazel there. The moment I saw him in the distance I shouted
out:

‘Fazel. There has been another miracle!’

On 13 June, the Persian Parliament decided, by an unprecedented vote, to confer full powers on Morgan Shuster to reorganize
the country’s finances. Henceforth he would be invited regularly to be present at Cabinet meetings.

In the meantime, another incident had become the topic of conversation in bazaar and chancellery alike. A rumour, whose origin
was unknown but which could be easily guessed, accused Morgan Shuster of belonging to a Persian sect. The whole thing may
seem absurd but the people spreading the rumour had distilled their venom well enough to be able to give the gossip an air
of plausibility. Overnight the Americans became suspect in the eyes of the crowd. Once again I was charged to speak about
it to the Treasurer General. Our relations had become closer since our first meeting. I called
him Morgan and he called me Ben. I explained to him the subject of the offence.

‘They are saying that amongst your servants there are
babis
or acknowledged
bahais
, which fact Fazel has confirmed to me. They are also saying that the
bahais
have just founded a very active branch in the United States. They have deduced that all Americans in the legation are in
fact
bahais
who, under the pretext of cleaning up the country’s finances, have come to win converts.’

Morgan deliberated for a moment:

‘I shall respond to the only important question: no, I have not come to preach or convert, but in order to reform Persian
finances which are in dire need of it. I shall add, for your information, that I am of course not a
bahai
and that I only learnt of the existence of these sects from Professor Browne’s book just before I arrived, and that I am
still unable to differentiate between a
babi
and a
bahai.
On the matter of my servants, of whom there are a good fifteen in this huge house, everyone knows that they were here before
I arrived. Their work gives me satisfaction and that is the only thing that matters. I am not accustomed to judge fellow-workmen
by their faith or the colour of their tie!’

‘I can understand your attitude perfectly well. It corresponds to my own convictions. However, we are in Persia and sensibilities
are sometimes different. I have just seen the new Minister of Finance. He thinks that in order to silence the slanderers,
the servants concerned, or at least some of them, will have to be fired.’

‘Is the Minister of Finance worrying about this business?’

‘More than you think. He fears that it might jeopardize everything he has undertaken in his sector. He has asked me to brief
him this evening on how I have got on.’

‘Don’t let me delay you. You can tell him on my behalf that no servant will be dismissed and that as far as I am concerned
the matter ends there!’

He stood up. I felt compelled to keep trying.

‘I am not certain that that response will be sufficient, Morgan!’

‘No? In that case, you can add to it: “Minister of Finance, if you have nothing better to do than examine my gardener’s religion,
I can supply you with more important files to pad out your time.”’

I gave the minister only the gist of his words, but I am quite certain that Morgan himself repeated them to him verbatim at
the first opportunity, moreover without causing the slightest drama. In fact everyone was happy that common sense had been
spoken with no beating about the bush.

‘Since Shuster has been here,’ Shireen confided in me one day, ‘the atmosphere is somewhat healthier and cleaner. When faced
with a chaotic and convoluted situation, one always thinks that it will take centuries to sort it out. Suddenly a man appears
and as if by magic, the tree we thought was doomed takes on new life and starts bearing leaves and fruit and giving shade.
This foreigner has given me back my faith in my countrymen. He does not speak to them as natives, he does not have any respect
for peoples’ sensitivities or their pettiness, but speaks to them like men and the Persians are rediscovering that they are
men. Do you know that in my family the old women pray for him?’

I am in no way departing from the truth by stating that in that year of 1911 all of Persia was living in the ‘age of the American’
and that Shuster was indisputably the most popular official and one of the most powerful. The newspapers supported his actions
all the more enthusiastically when he took the trouble to invite the editors over from time to time to brief them on his projects
and solicit their advice on some prickly questions.

Above all, and most importantly, his difficult mission was on the road to success. Before even reforming the fiscal system,
he managed to balance the budget simply by limiting theft and waste. Previously, innumerable notables, princes, ministers
or high dignitaries would send their demands to the Treasury in the form of a note scribbled on a greasy piece of paper, and
the civil servants were constrained to satisfy them unless they wished to lose their job or their life. With Morgan everything
had changed overnight.

I will give one example out of so many others. On 17 June at a Cabinet meeting, Shuster was presented with a pathetic request
for the sum of forty-two million
tumans
in order to pay the salaries of the troops in Teheran.

‘Otherwise a rebellion will break out and it is the Treasurer General who will bear the entire responsibility!’ exclaimed
Amir-i-Azam, the ‘Supreme Emir’, the Minister of War.

Shuster gave the following response:

‘The Minister himself took a similar sum ten days ago. What has he done with it?’

‘I have used it to pay part of the soldiers’ back-pay. Their families are hungry and the officers are all in debt. The situation
is intolerable.’

‘Is the Minister certain that there is nothing left from that sum?’

‘Not the smallest coin!’

Shuster took out of his pocket a small visiting card which was covered with tiny writing and which he conspicuously consulted
before stating:

‘The sum which the Treasury paid out ten days ago has been deposited in its entirety in the personal account of the Minister.
Not one
tuman
has been spent. I have here the name of the banker and the figures.’

The supreme Emir, a huge fleshy man, stood up, bristling with rage; he placed his hand on his chest and cast a furious glance
at his colleagues:

‘Is this an attempt to question my honour?’

As no one reassured him on that point, he added:

‘I swear that if such a sum is indeed in my account, I am the last to know about it.’

There were some looks of incredulity around him, it was decided to bring in the banker and Shuster asked the ministers to
wait where they were. The moment it was indicated that the man had arrived, the Minister of War rushed to meet him. After
an exchange of whispers the supreme Emir came back to his colleagues with an artless smile.

‘This damned banker had not understood my orders. He has not yet paid the troops. It was a misunderstanding!’

The incident was closed, albeit with some difficulty, but thereafter the State’s high officials did not dare to pillage the
Treasury to their heart’s content, a centuries-old custom. There were of course malcontents, but they had to keep silent since
most of the people, even amongst the ranks of the government officials, had reason to be satisfied: for the first time in
history, civil servants, soldiers, and Persian diplomats abroad received their salaries on time.

Even in international financial circles people were starting to believe in the Shuster miracle. As proof: the Seligman brothers,
bankers in London, decided to grant Persia a loan of four million pounds sterling without imposing any humiliating clauses
of the type which were generally attached to this type of transaction – neither a levy on customs receipts, nor a mortgage
of any sort. It was a normal loan to a normal, respectable and potentially solvent client. That was an important step. In
the eyes of those who wanted to subjugate Persia it was a dangerous precedent. The British government intervened to block
the loan.

Meanwhile, the Tsar had recourse to more brutal methods. In July it was learned that the former Shah had returned, with two
of his brothers and at the head of an army of mercenaries, to try and seize power. Had he not been under house arrest in Odessa,
with the Russian government’s explicit promise never to allow him to return to Persia? When questioned, the St Petersburg
authorities replied that he had slipped out with a false passport and that his armaments had been transported in boxes labelled
‘mineral water’, and that they themselves bore no responsibility for his rebellion. Thus he had left his residence in Odessa
and with his men crossed the few hundred miles separating the Ukraine and Persia, boarded a Russian ship with all his armaments,
crossed the Caspian Sea and disembarked on the Persian side – all of that without arousing the notice of the Tsar’s government,
his army nor the Okhrana, his secret police?