ME. GIBSON BOWLESTo ask the First Lord of the Treasury can any information be given respecting the recent incident at Bushire which induced Lord Curzon to leave that port without exchanging visits with the Persian Prince, Governor-General of Shiraz, who had arrived at Bushire to welcome him; had the form of ceremonial been arranged at Teheran between His Majesty's Minister and the Persian Government, and did Lord Curzon subsequently insist on such ceremonial being modified; has the course adopted by Lord Curzon been approved by His 194 Majesty's Government; and can Papers be laid containing the Correspondence on the subject interchanged with the Persian Government as well as with Lord Curzon and His Majesty's Minister in Persia.
(Answered by Earl Percy.) The form of ceremonial originally arranged between the Persian Government and His Majesty's Minister at Teheran was subsequently modified by the former in certain particulars before the Viceroy's arrival at Bushire. The desire and intention expressed by His Majesty the Shah of showing courtesy and hospitality to the Viceroy was unhappily frustrated owing to the arrangements locally made. His Majesty's Government share the regret of the Persian Government at an untoward incident which is now closed, and with regard to which it is therefore undesirable and unnecessary to lay any Papers.