Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/1250

 1128 PERSIA

the Educational Council recently created is doing very useful work ; female education has been greatly advanced. It is said that there aie now some 180 schools in Persia with an aggregate of 10,000 pupils of both sexes.

There are many colleges (medresseh), supported by public funds, in which students are instructed in religion and Persian and Arabic literature, as well as in a certain amount of scientific knowledge, and many schools for children, while private tutors are very common, being employed by all families who have the means. A polytechnic school with a number ol European professors, opened in Teheran in 1849, has done much towards introducing the knowledge of Western languages and science into Persia, and four French professors were recently engaged for work at the college. There are also military colleges at Teheran and Tabriz. A German school, with an annual subsidy of 2,400^. from the Persian Government and 1,000Z. from Germany, was opened in 1907. Private subscriptions raised in Germany paid for the erection of a fine building with class-rooms for 700 pupils, and suitable quarters for five German teachers and their families. There are also ten or twelve Persian teachers. It has now about 200 pupils. There is also a French school supported by the Alliance Fran^aise. But the bulk of the population are taught only to read the Koran. A 'political college,' Medresseh i Siasi, now having 30 pupils, was opened in 1900, and prepares candidates for service in the Foreign Office, which pays 75,000 krans per annum for its maintenance.

It has been decided to send Government students to various European countries ; the students are chosen from the ablest Persian young men, who must be advanced in their studies in Persia, and have to pass a competitive examination so as to be accepted as Government students. Each one learns a profession designated by the Government, and an official is sent with them to look after them and watch their progress and make reports. Thirty Government students have already arrived in France, and there are several in England. These students cost the Government 550 tomans each per annum and are looked after by the ' Union Franco-Persan ' in Paris.

Justice.

Justice is administered by the governors and their representatives, and by the Sheikhs-ul-Islam and the priesthood. The former administer justice according to the Urf, the unwritten or common law ; the latter according to the Shar', the written or divine law.

The dispensation of justice is always summary. In May, 1888, the Shah published a proclamation stating that henceforth no subject would be punished except by operation of law, and that all subjects had full liberty as to life and property. But another proclamation published in June annulled the first as far as regards liberty of property.

Finance.

In May, 1911, Mr. Morgan Shuster, accompanied by several American assistants, who had been loaned to Persia by the United States Government to reorganise the financial administration of the country, arrived in Teheran and took up the office of Treasurer-General. He resigned this position and left Persia on January 8, 1912. In June, 1912, the Belgian Administrator General of Customs, M. Mornard, was appointed to fill the vacant post, and was given a five years' contract as Treasurer-General. Every important centre now has a Belgian controller of finances, while the lesser important towns have a native.

The revenue of Persia has been affected by fluctuations in the value of silver. The revenue for 1910-11 has been estimated at 140,000,000 krans,