in New York to summon Baskerville from Iran, whose activities endangered the interests of the United States and the Presbyterian Church, until the news of Baskerville's resignation on April 16 was announced to Washington. According to research by Thomas Ricks, at the time, the Department of Defense was opposed to the involvement of missionaries in Iran's internal affairs, and if missionaries interfered in Iran's internal affairs, they would lose their jobs. About 50 Christian Presbyterians living in Tabriz at the time could not join the ranks of constitutionalists due to their commitment to the church. But they respected Baskerville's efforts. Forming rescue squad In mid-April 1909, and ten months after the siege of Tabriz began, a small group called the Rescue Squad decided to cross the siege line and take food from the villages as food and medicine ran out. Baskerville volunteered for the mission and asked Sattar Khan for weapons. Sattar Khan believed that Baskerville and the soldiers of the Rescue Squad did not have enough experience to work with weapons, so he initially opposed their arming. But eventually the squad was armed. According to Annie Wilson, on April 15, she and a British journalist named D.C. Moore embarked on the mission. On April 19, the wheat supply in Tabriz was only enough for one day, and on the other hand, Sattar Khan failed to provide the cannon he had promised. Baskerville first tried to persuade Sattar Khan to ask the Europeans for help and surrender to the king on appropriate terms. But Sattar Khan was determined to launch another attack. Initially, at a meeting convened by the State Council on the night of Saturday, April 28, it was decided to attack the besieging group the following night, but it was finally decided that on Monday morning, April 19, to launch the attack. With the help of the Rescue Squad that morning, it was decided to attack a part of the besieging forces of Tabriz, which was under the command of Samad Khan Shoja al-Dawla and a number of Cossacks, and break the city wall. Mehdi Alavizadeh, a member of the Rescue Squad, said: "The night the attack on Samad Khan's forces was to begin the next morning, Baskerville prepared and ordered his followers (members of the Rescue Squad) Before midnight, they gathered at the police station (Tabriz police building, which was one of the bases for nationalists)… (but)