Elkton Outrage (Cont'd)

Iran's vigilant eye last week remained cocked with suspicious disapproval upon the natives of remote Elkton, Md., in which hamlet the Envoy Extraordinary and the Minister Plenipotentiary of Iran, the Great Ghaffar Khan Djalal, was grossly insulted and subjected to being manacled like a criminal (TIME, Dec. 9). The natives who thus violated international comity contended that the Great Khan's car had been speeding. When he produced his diplomatic credentials, saying "I am the Minister of Iran," they, in abysmal ignorance, exclaimed: "Aw, this guy is nothing but a preacher." The Great Khan was avenged to the extent that Elkton's Town Council, under pressure from the U. S. State Department, fired the policeman who perpetrated this outrage. Constable Clayton L. Ellison. Last week Iran was incensed to learn that Elkton had stealthily rehired Constable Ellison. At once the powerful influence of the Kingdom of His Majesty Shah Reza, King of Kings and the Elect of God, again operated, and Elkton's Town Council again fired Constable Ellison.

Abrupt and secretive, His Majesty at this juncture last week recalled the Great Khan to Iran, disclosing neither his reasons nor whether a new Iranian Minister will be sent to Washington. At the Iranian legation it was inferred that the King of Kings had been vexed by the attitude of Secretary of State Cordell Hull after the original "Elkton Outrage." Chatting with reporters, Mr. Hull said that the diplomatic immunity of Ambassadors and Ministers should not be considered by them license to violate, but instead reason for observing, laws with particular scrupulousness. This appeared to most Iranian aristocrats both unreasonable and silly. During Prohibition the entire corps diplomatique exercised their immunity to have liquor shipped to them in Washington. And if the envoy of the King of Kings has immunity to speed, how, Iranians asked, can Mr. Hull deduce from this an obligation to drive slowly?

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