Ext 5001/41 'PERSIA – INTERNAL (Miscellaneous despatches).' [‎50v] (100/248)

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assist in the teaching of 500 in the university, schools and other institutions,
further expansion ot English classes is limited by the number of teachers,
although they are helped by all.the available part-time teachers from the British
ami American communities. In Shemran, a summer resort near Tehran, the
Summer Institute was opened in June with 200 students. At Isfahan factory An East India Company trading post.
owners have been approached to form workers’ clubs in which English classes
will be organised. The weekly concerts, film shows and lectures continued as^
usual, although lecturers are becoming increasingly hard to find. An exhibition
oy tne Isfahan Arts Group, of work both traditional and modern, was viewed by
2.500 visitors at the Isfahan Institute.
British Army Interests.
30. The Indian Army Motor Transport Companies, who for some eighteen
months had maintained a high record of efficiency in carrying “ Aid to Russia ”
supplies, often in very arduous conditions of road and winter weather, from
Khanakm, on the Iraq frontier, to Tabriz, have now been withdrawn. The
opeiation of that route was taken over by the United Kingdom Commercial
Coipoiation, but the Russians have now elected that with effect from the
1st August the United Kingdom Commercjal Corporation shall carry to Pahlevi
only and not to Tabriz. The maintenance of the Takistan-Tabriz road, for long
the responsibility of British engineers, has now been handed over to the Russian
authorities, and the new Mianeh Bridge, the last work to be completed by the
Royal Engineers on that road, was recently" opened for traffic. The connexion
Army ^ith Azerbaijan appears now to have come to an end, and
the Russians may perhaps be congratulating themselves that British ofhcials’have
no further justification for penetrating that part of their zone in Persia except
on business connected with the Consulate-General in Tabriz.
31 Thefts of British Army telephone and telegraph wires recently reached
S i? C Ti proportions that it seemed necessary to address a sharp note to
the Persian Government which has led to the assumption by the Persian Army
of responsibility for the protection of certain sectors. Pilfering from trains and
dumps still continues in spite of stern measures taken to check it. The value
of wire and of the goods that can be pilfered is so high that thieves willindv
risk death to obtain this valuable loot. & J
Security.
•u A ft / r farther prolonged negotiations, the surrender by the Qashgai
tube or the four Germans whom they had been harbouring was followed by the
surrender to the British security authorities of the Persian Deputy, Naubakht
m the month of May. Naubakht had fled from Tehran and taken sanctuary with
the Qashcpi in August 1943, after His Majesty’s Embassy had informed the
Persian Government that they had documents showing that he was one of the
chief instigators of the anti-Ally plot of 1942. Naubakht has been sent to the
rnternment camp at Sultanabad for interrogation by the Anglo-Persian
Commission.
33. !n June the British security authorities located the Mullah Kashani in
a^villa in the hills north of Tehran, and effected his arrest in collaboration with
the Persian police. Kashani was also implicated in the anti-Ally plot mentioned
above Kashani, too, has been sent to Sultanabad for interrogation It is probable
that there are now no more prominent Persians at large in Persia whose intern-
ment is required by the British security authorities, but some have escaped to
1 urkey and beyond with the connivance of Persian officials.
Internal Politics and Majlis.
t t , 34 ' °, n th ® 6th A P ri ! th e Prime Minister, Saed, presented to the Shah and
to the Majhs his reconstituted Cabinet. The two young men, Mahmud Fateh
ami Mahmud Nariman, were dropped, and also General Riazi; Abdul-Qasim
Ferouhar became Minister of Finance, Dr. Ghani Minister of Education in place
o Kiazi, Nasir E timadi became Minister of Agriculture, and the Ministry of
Rosts and Telegraphs remained vacant, the Under-Secretary, Hakimi, being
considered quite capable of carrying on as he had done on many occasions before
, l , p . r u f bllC P 31 ^ 1 ? was given to Dr. Saed Malik, who had not previously
.eld Cabinet rank. The Cabinet did not appear to be much stronger than its
predecessor, and could not be regarded as including any true representative of
the young and progressive elements, except possibly Hajhir. He. however, seems
at the moment of writing to be estranged from his chief to some extent. Perhaps