PERSIA: Justice

Charles Evans Hughes is Secretary of State at Washington; and that fact was forcefully brought home to the Persian Government after the murder of U.S, Vice Consul Robert W. Imbrie (TIME, July 28).

True, the Persian Government made a full apology and ample reparation to the Vice Consul’s widow (TIME, Aug. 11, Oct. 13). It even went so far as to execute one Private Morteza; but two culpables had their death sentences commuted.

This did not please Secretary Hughes. In the interests of U. S. citizens abroad, he wanted the remaining two men shot—and shot they were. The Imperial Persian Government made that quite clear to the Government of the U.S. Persian-American relations became less strained.