The Foreign Service Journal, November 2005

telegraphing the Paris Embassy in reply to my sister, Mrs. Alexander’s, inquiries. I believe a report of my marriage was changed to my ‘murder,’ a rather amusing mistake when played that way, but which would have been extremely unpleasant for me if it had happened the other way around.” Another despatch to Tehran, on July 27, 1918, illus- trates the problems Paddock faced throughout his tenure in reconciling the demands of the Department of State with the realities of the region. “I regret extremely that it is quite impossible for me to comply at present with the request contained in your unnumbered instruction (File 300) of the 15th instant, to sup- ply the legation with quadruple copies of my despatches. I have, after much searching in the shops here, been able to find but five pieces of carbon paper, of poor quality and at an absurd price ($0.10) per sheet, and unfortunately, there remain but two of these sheets, both of which are worn.” Notwithstanding such difficulties, Gottschalk was not impressed with Paddock’s job performance. He reported that the consul had traits “usual in most of our American secretaries — a somewhat lofty idea of gentility; deliber- ateness instead of energy and action; and the acquired habit of self-effacement and tactful subordination.” He concluded that Paddock’s long absence from the U.S. and lack of consular experience “seem somewhat to militate against his usefulness in his present post.” One other comment from his report is particularly rel- evant, in light of later events: “Where he has shown less energy is in making no plans to visit Urmia (where we have an American colony, I am told).” Caught in the Middle Paddock probably expected to spend his time following the Persian carpet trade, issuing visas and promoting American exports, but it was another consular function that was to preoccupy him: protecting the interests of the American citizens in his district. Those were primarily Presbyterian missionaries, whose predecessors had been among the first Americans to establish a presence in Persia back in 1835. They settled in an area of villages inhabited by Armenian and Assyrian (Nestorian) Christians in the province of Azerbaijan, a region of multi- layered fear and conflict also inhabited by Shiite Azeris (the majority) and Sunni Kurds, all governed by a weak Persian regime. The advent of World War I in 1914 aggravated the latent tensions of this ethnic mix: Turks, allied with Germany, invaded from the west, while Russian forces were already ensconced in the region with the consent of their allies, the British, causing the region’s two principal cities, Tabriz and Urmia, to be repeatedly occupied and evacuated over the next few years. German propaganda dur- ing World War I emphasized the dual role of the Ottoman sultan as both the secular leader of Turkey and, as caliph, the reli- gious leader among Muslims. For their part, Czarist Russians acted as defenders of the local Christians; the latter were, as a result, seen in the region as pro- Allied. At the same time, strong fears of Turkey prevailed among the Armenians, many of whom had barely survived massacres in Turkey before fleeing to Persia. Similarly, the Assyrian Christians, with their own militia, the Jalus, saw threats from Turkey and their neigh- bors, the Kurds. The Sunni Muslim Kurds — like their fellow kinsmen in Iraq, Turkey and Syria — dreamed of an independent Kurdistan; they saw threats to their hopes from both Christians and other Muslims. Caught in the middle of this turmoil were the American missionaries, who — because the U.S. was a neutral power until 1917 — operated hospitals and schools and provided relief. The situation created dilemmas for the American mis- sionaries, some of whom were conscientious objectors. When Dr. William Shedd was appointed honorary vice consul in Urmia, some of his colleagues objected — fear- ful, with some justification, that such close identification with the United States government would imperil them. Some even urged Shedd to move outside their compound, but he refused, though only a modest sign on the gate indicated his official status. Another internal debate involved whether to respond to calls from the Assyrian fighters to provide them bread. The missionaries did so, but were well aware that such a move supported charges that they were supporting one faction in the conflict. N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 57 Several years before the rescue, a State Department inspector had described Paddock as possessing “deliberateness instead of energy and action.”