Josephus Henricus Ludovicus Mathias Hubertus Naus (March 30, 1849 in Geldern; July 16, 1920 in Brussel) was born in Rhenish Prussia but was Dutch-speaking and of Limburgish descent and Catholic. His parents, Henri Naus (Roermond, June 20, 1799 – Gavere, May 27, 1858) and Julia van Daell (Roermond, February 17, 1809 – Oudenaarde, December 17, 1894) were Belgian. Henri Naus was a tax collector. Joseph Naus's son, also named Henri Naus (1875-1938), distinguished himself in Egypt, where he played a prominent role in the agro-industry between 1902 and 1938.
Joseph Naus joined the Customs and Excise Administration on 18 August 1869. He began his career in Limburg, in Hasselt and Neerpelt and became a 4th class customs inspector in Antwerp in 1873. He was then promoted to deputy director at the Central Administration in Brussels in 1890. "As a reward for the zeal, intelligence and dedication he demonstrated during the investigation of alcohol fraud carried out by the Welkenraedt office and the investigation of this case", he was awarded the title of Knight of the Order of Leopold.
In January 1898, Joseph Naus was appointed to a mission to Persia, where he arrived on March 15 of the same year. He was thus part of the spearhead of the Belgian mission to Persia. It was in fact in the company of three other Belgians (Ch. Engels, Jérôme Priem and Theunis) that Joseph Naus left for the province of Azerbaijan, designated as a test zone for reforming finances, of which customs were the main source of revenue. Corruption, the practice of renting, and political interference seriously hampered their operation. In some regions, customs were non-existent or revenues were immediately transferred to Russia. The intervention of the mission, which replaced the traditional system of renting with a tax administration, was a great success. From 1901 onwards, many additional Belgian civil servants were called upon to manage not only customs posts in the other provinces of the empire, but also postal services, currency, passport control, and public works. The position of power that the head of this mission, Joseph Naus, managed to acquire thanks to this success propelled him to the head of the imperial customs and treasury and made him the de facto finance minister of Persia. When he attacked the privileges of the provincial governors, asking them to pay their province's contributions to the national treasury, the latter revolted, but the pressure exerted by Shah Mozaffar ed-Din, eternally short of cash, and especially by the British and Russians, who saw the proper functioning of the customs as a guarantee of repayment of their loans, overcame the governors' revolt. In 1902, Joseph Naus took over as general director of the post office. The leasing of the 100 existing post offices was interrupted by 20 Belgian customs officers sent to reform the post office. A system of postal orders and an exchange service with India and Russia were established. The number of post offices increased. In February 1904, Camille Molitor (see notice) replaced Joseph Naus as head of postal services.
But Joseph Naus would pay the price of the constitutional revolution of 1906, which united intellectuals and religious figures against foreign influence and gave rise to xenophobic excesses. Joseph Naus was forced to resign on May 13, 1907, having lost the support of the new Shah Mohammad Ali as well as the Persian parliament. He was replaced by the more diplomatic Joseph Mornard. Joseph Naus has been criticized for having become too involved in politics. The Iranologist Annette Destrée believed that maintaining the strictest neutrality was the absolute condition for successfully carrying out his mission in Persia. Joseph Naus retired on July 10, 1908. He retired to a castle in Limburg and offered his services as an advisor on Persian affairs to the Russian government. He did business with Egypt, where his son was, whom he managed to support advantageously. During the German occupation, Joseph Naus was banished from Belgium due to his fervent anti-German views. After the First World War, it is notable that Joseph Naus was the third-largest shareholder in the Crédit Hypothécaire Agricole et Urbain d'Egypte. He also experienced two bankruptcies before his death in 1920.
