Millspaugh Out

Dr. Arthur Chester Millspaugh, U. S.-born Administrator-General of Persian Finance, refused last week to accept the extension of his contract for a sixth year which was made recently by the Persian Parliament (TIME, July 25). To newsgatherers at Teheran the close-lipped Doctor would say no more than that he planned an immediate return to the U. S.

Subordinate members of the five-year-old Millspaugh commission said with asperity that the Majlis (Parliament) had so limited the Administrator-General's powers in extending his contract, that for Dr. Millspaugh to have accepted would have meant complete loss of "face" and probable termination of his usefulness to Persia..

At Teheran, feeling ran so high last week between Persian friends of Dr. Millspaugh and Persian supporters of his implacable opponent, Finance Minister Prince Firouz Mirza Firouz, that several minor acts of violence resulted. Finally a group of ardent Millspaughites knocked down and pummeled Finance Minister Prince Firouz on the steps of the Majlis Building.

To ease the delicate situation thus created, Prime Minister Mirza Hassan Khan Mostofi announced that he would act pro tempore as Administrator-General of Finance, thus succeeding and displacing Dr. Millspaugh.

Significance. Anglo-Saxon observers generally esteem the work of Dr. Millspaugh and give him credit for placing Persian state finance on an orderly and financially sound basis for the first time in history. Many Persians concur, but others feel that Dr. Millspaugh has sown the seeds of Anglo-Saxon finance on Persian soil without being able sufficiently to harmonize the new growth with Persian conditions or temperament. For example, certain tribal practices which in the U. S. might be stigmatized as "graft", are so immemorially a part of Persian life and custom that Dr. Millspaugh got small thanks from any class for his efforts to apply the rules of so-called Anglo-Saxon "business honesty."

Finally Dr. Millspaugh has been constantly opposed by a propaganda in Persia emanating from Soviet Russia. He has had the support of British propaganda; but this propaganda has not been so effective in Persia as before the War, when British espionage and bribery at Teheran were exceed ingly efficient, however flagrant.