Ext 5001/41 'PERSIA – INTERNAL (Miscellaneous despatches).' [‎106r] (211/248)

at first been supposed, while a sudden demand by the Soviet Government for
5,000 tons of wheat, 15,000 tons of barley (in addition to 6,000 tons aUeg^to
be outstanding on a previous clearing arrangement) and 30,000 tons of nbe.
compelled His Majesty’s Government to reconsider the matter. Eventually the
Persian Government succeeded in concluding an agreement, which was signed
after many delays on the 4th December, by which they recognised that the primary
Responsibility for feeding the Persian people is theirs, and that they must take
all possible steps to that end. including the utilisation to the best advantage of
the internal transport at their disposal, while the British and United States
Governments for their part undertake both to do their best to make up any deficit
in bread cereals which, nevertheless, occurs, and also to ensure that the transport
at the disposal of the Persian Government, if put to the proper use, shall be
sufficient for the distribution of such cereals. It has been made clear to the Soviet
Government and to the Soviet Ambassador in Tehran that the replacement from
overseas of bread cereals purchasedi in Persia for the Russian forces will
necessarily interfere to some extent with the carriage of goods and war material
to Russia.
14. The internal wheat situation has already been separately described in
my monthly reports. Briefly the position is that wheat collections in the provinces
have continued to be most unsatisfactory. Other contributing causes, besides the
economic earthquake caused by the sudden doubling of the official price, are :
the failure to take any proper steps to put the new policy into effect, the
traditional unwillingness of provincial authorities to co-operate with the Central
Government, the reluctance of the Central Government to take any action against
landowners and other hoarders of wheat, and, in Azerbaijan, the principal wheat
growing area, the paralysis resulting from fear of Russian intentions and their
repeated interference with attempts to export food-stuffs out of the province
through their zone of occupation.
15. The Soviet Government has now officially promised to assist in the
, transportation of grain from the north, and their local representatives have agreed
to this being done, but obstruction still continues. Wheat for Khorassan has been
held up at the Russian railhead at Shahrud, and interference at Kazvin has been
so consistent that wheat from Hamadan and other western districts has to come
by the long route via Arak, thus wasting badly-needed motor transport and
adding to the congestion of north-bound traffic on the railway. Until the last
few days no wheat had come in from Azerbaijan, the local Government has d6ne
nothing to collect wheat in centres from which it could be easily transported to
Tehran (or alternatively seized by the Russians), and* winter is now upon us,
making transport in many districts impossible. The Persian Minister for Food
has himself gone to Tabriz to try to relieve the situation, and British army
lorries are carrying back loads of wheat from Azerbaijan southwards.
16. Meanwhile Tehran has consumed practically all the stocks available
in the vicinity, has nearly exhausted the possible surplus from Arak, the only
surplus area free from fear of Russian interference, and has been several times on
the verge of starvation. The promise of the Allies to import 25.000 tons of wheat
cannot begin to be effective for two months or more. The army is lending 1,500
tons of flour from its own stocks and efforts are being made to rush up from Basra
3,500 tons of barley promised from Iraq in September and October but only now
in sight, and rice is beginning to come in from the north; but the task of the
American Food Adviser, whose energies are almost entirely absorbed in the
problem of Tehran’s bread supply, will not Be an enviable one for the next three
months.
Polish Refugees.
17. The unfortunate deterioration of the currency and food situation in
Persia has made the Persians regard the Polish refugees who are here with
growing disfavour. In Tehran there are still 19,000 and. it is calculated that this
is an addition of about 8 per cent, to those inhabitants of Tehran who have a
European standard of feeding. In order to ease the pressure of Polish buying
on prices and supplies of food-stuffs, a scale of rationing has now been agreed
with the Poles themelves, the representatives of Mena, the American Red Cross
and the Persian authorities, including Mr. Sheridan, the American Adviser to the
Ministry of Food, and it is hoped that this will serve to take some of the stim>-
out of Persian criticisms, though there is a movement to increase the intended
rations slightly on the ground that it is insufficient to maintain in health people
debilitated by two and a half years of malnutrition. Meanwhile an ever-
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