Morgan Shuster
William Morgan Shuster (born February 23, 1877 in Washington, DC , † May 26, 1960 in New York City ) was an American lawyer, tax officer, writer and publisher who was known as the Chancellor of the Exchequer of Persia. From May to December 1911 he was appointed by the decision of the Persian parliament ( Majlis ), Treasurer General of the Iranian government.
Life
Shuster was born in Washington DC as the son of William Shusters and the German-born Caroline von Tage. He graduated from George Washington University . After graduating, he went into public service and worked from 1899 after the Spanish-American War as a tax officer for the US government in Cuba and later in the Philippines , at that time an American colony. Shuster was married to Pearl Trigg, the daughter of a Scottish banker, and had two daughters.
In Persia
In 1906, the leaders of the Constitutional Revolution in Persia began to build a democratic civil society based on the Western model. This constitutional movement forced Mozaffar ad-Din Shah to elect the first parliament ( Majlis ), to allow an almost free press and other reforms.
Based on a recommendation by the US government to the Iranian ambassador in Washington, Shuster was appointed by the Majlis in the spring of 1911 to help the country out of its tense situation. Persia's finances were on weak feet at this time, as the Qajars , the royal family of Persia, had incurred considerable debts with the colonial powers Great Britain and Russia at the expense of the country. To make matters worse, Great Britain and Russia had divided Persia into zones of influence in the Treaty of Saint Petersburg in 1907 . The north was controlled by Tsarist Russia and the south by Great Britain.
The employment of Shuster and his employees as financial advisor to the Persian government worried the then great powers Russia and Great Britain, who wanted to slow down the development of an independent national feeling in Persia and prevent the influence of other, independent states.
Morgan Shuster arrived in Tehran on May 12, 1911. Persia was insolvent at this point. According to the finance minister, the account of the Persian government with the Imperial Bank of Persia was overdrawn by the equivalent of $ 400,000. Shuster began to actively support the constitutional revolution of Persia by building a functioning financial administration. In order to emphasize the tax assessments, Shuster insisted on setting up the treasury's own gendarmerie ( Jandarmeri-e Khazaneh ). Under the supervision of Colonel Merrill, a powerful force of capable Iranian officers and a thousand men was quickly built up, who strictly followed Shuster's instructions. But when Shuster wanted to hire the British officer CB Stokes as commander of the financial gendarmerie, a political uproar broke out. Russia and Great Britain had divided Iran into zones of influence in the Treaty of Saint Petersburg in 1907 . The north of Iran had been given to the Russians and the south to the British. The Russian government insisted that no British officer had authority in northern Iran. The proposed hiring of Major Stokes created a political crisis between Iran and Russia. Russia called for Morgan Shuster to be fired.
Shuster also makes before Kadscharenprinzen not stop, who for years had paid no taxes and sparked with his uncompromising approach a domestic and foreign policy crisis that lead in December 1911 to his resignation and the dissolution of the gendarmerie of the Treasury. The Swedish officer Hjalmarson, who was to set up a new gendarmerie independent from the Shah on behalf of parliament, took over officers and men from the Treasury as the core force of the Persian gendarmerie .
After a failed coup by Mohammed Ali Shah , who was in exile in Russia , the Iranian government called on the brother of Shah Shu'a al-Saltaneh (شعاع السلطنه) , one of the country's richest men and ardent supporter of Russia's political goals in Persia, to to cede his property to the government as compensation for the damage caused by the coup. Shuster was hired to carry out the seizure. Under Russian and British pressure, the Vice-Regent of Persia dismissed Shuster from his posts in December 1911, against the wishes of Parliament. Parliament confirmed Shuster in his office and lifted the dismissal. The Russian government immediately requested Shuster's deportation. When parliament refused this request, Russia occupied northern Iran. It immediately dispatched troops to Bandar Anzali to prevent the Shah's brother's property from being confiscated. The troops should also emphasize the Russian demand for compensation and apology from the Persian government.
The parliament building in Tehran had been shelled by troops from Russian General Liakhoff, and Morgan Shuster was forced to give in to pressure from Russia and Great Britain and resign. Parliament was dissolved and no budget was passed for the next few years.
Shuster's book The Strangling of Persia - Persia in a stranglehold describes the events in detail and criticizes Great Britain and Russia.
Persia in a stranglehold
Upon his return to the United States, Shuster became president of the Century Publishing Company, later Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. He published an indictment of Russian and British interference in Persia under the title The Strangling of Persia - Persia in a Stranglehold . Shuster writes in a well-known paragraph of his book
“It was obvious that the Persian people deserved something better than they are currently getting. She wanted our success. But Britain and Russia were determined to prevent our success. "
The Strangling of Persia was published in New York in 1912 by the Century Company. Greenwood Press reprinted the book in 1968 and Mage Publishers reprinted it in 1987 and 2005. The first edition of the book bears the subtitle How European diplomacy and oriental machinations lead to the denationalization of twelve million Mohammedans, a personal report .
Shuster's book is an eyewitness account of the development of a still weak, developing nation, prey to the soaring imperial expansionist urge of Great Britain and Russia. A central theme is the persistence with which Shuster takes on the task of building a functioning financial administration, a basic requirement for a nascent, nationally-minded government that wants to resist imperialism. For this reason, Shuster and the financial officials who came with him were the immediate target of the Russian invasion from 1911 to 1912. The declared intention of Russian foreign policy was to remove Shusters from the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The book is also noteworthy because Shuster was firmly convinced that he was involved in building a "Mohammedan" democracy. The constitution of 1906 remained almost unchanged from the constitution of Iran until 1979.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ William Morgan Shuster: The Strangeling of Persia . New York, 1912 (New edition 2008; Read Books ISBN 1-4437-3139-0 ), p. 43.
- ^ William Morgan Shuster: The Strangeling of Persia . New York, 1912 (New edition 2008; Read Books ISBN 1-44373-139-0 ), p. 334.
Web links
gallery
Mr. and Mrs. Shuster in front of their house in Tehran, April 1911
Mr. FSCairns, director of tax collection and Mr. Shuster's principal assistant, 1911
Mr. Charles I. McCaskey, Tax Inspector and Mr. Shuster's second assistant, 1911
Major CB Stokes, whom Shuster wanted to hire as commander of the Iranian Finance Police, which led to a political crisis between Iran and Russia and the dismissal of Mr. Shuster as Chancellor of the Exchequer
Mr. and Mrs. Shuster leave Tehran, December 1911
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Shuster, Morgan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Shuster, William Morgan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American diplomat, Persian Chancellor of the Exchequer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 23, 1877 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Washington, DC |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 26, 1960 |
| Place of death | New York City |