خارجي ٤٦/٥٠٠٠(١) ا"لوضع الفارسي: تقارير متنوعة" [و‎‎٢‎٤‎١] (١٢٠٢/٤٨١)

5.
[SN CLAIR]
DEPARTMENTAL NO. 2
FROM MOS COW TO FOREIGN OFFICE
Mr. Roberts
No. 2956 ' D. 10.40 a.m. 10th September, 1946.
10th September, 1946. R. 12.50, p.m. 10th September, 1946.
Repeated to : Jerusalem
Red Star of September 8th publishes a 2-column
article by Colonel Tolchenov entitled "Transjordan and
Palestine as a British military training ground in the
Near East" in which the writer maintains that British
rule in Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan is not explained
so much by their economic importance (despite Iraqi oil)
as by their strategic importance at the junction of 3
continents.
2. Tolchenov claims that both before and during
the war Britain converted Palestine and Transjordan into
gigantic strategic bases, and by constructing barracks,
roads, railways, airfields and ports indicated that she
was preparing a base in the Middle East "suitable for
action in any direction".
3o The inaction of 2 British armies and the Polish
army of General Anders at a critical stage of the war
against Germany, continued military preparations in
Transjordan, the presence of a garrison exceeding 60,000
troops in Palestine, the recent arrival of British and
Indian troops in Basra, and the suppression of any move
ment towards independence, are all then quoted by Tolchenov
to show that Britain is trying to realise wider aims than
the maintenance of her economic and political positions
in the Middle East countries.
4. Tolchenov declares that this expansionist policy
is creating a centre of unrest in the Middle East and is
far from being dictated by a desire for peace in this
area, he concludes that any aggressive act attracts the
attention not only of the countries against which it is
directed, but of all other States vitally interested in
universal peacce
IMPORTANT
Cairo
Bagd ad
New York (for Sir A. Cadogan)