Message to Congress on Persian Indemnity Fund

To the Congress of the United States:

I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of State with regard to the utilization for the education of Persian students in the United States of a sum not to exceed $110,000, received from the Persian Government in reimbursement of the expenses incurred in connection with the return on the U. S. S. Trenton of the remains of the late Vice Consul Robert W. Imbrie who was killed in Teheran on July 18, 1924.

In view of the prompt manner in which the Persian Government met the demands for reparation which were made by this Government as a result of the killing of Vice Consul Imbrie, in rendering all appropriate honors to the body of the vice consul while on Persian and Mesopotamian soil, in paying to the widow the sum of $60,000, in carrying out the execution of the death penalty in the case of three persons and of 30 other lesser sentences in the cases of persons found guilty in varying degree of participation in or responsibility for the assault, it is my earnest hope that Congress will see fit to authorize the setting aside of the funds, not to exceed $110,000, which, as indicated above, have been received from the Persian Government, to be spent for the educational purposes afore-mentioned under such conditions as the Secretary of State may prescribe.

Such action by Congress will tend to foster friendly relations between the United States and Persia and will be in line with the precedent already sanctioned by the Congress in the case of the Boxer indemnity fund.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

THE WHITE HOUSE, January 6, 1926.