Ext 5001/41 'PERSIA – INTERNAL (Miscellaneous despatches).' [‎5v] (10/248)

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5. At the session of the 4th September, after Dr. Abduh, a member of the
Persian Delegation to the San Francisco Conference, had made a long and care
fully prepared speech on the activities of the Conference, on the drafting of the
United ^Nations Charter, and its application to the Persia of to-day, the Majlis
approved the Charter unanimously.
6. On the 9th September a proposal by Deputy Ardelan that in future no
foreign national should be engaged without the previous sanction by the Majlis
was approved by a large majority. On the 27th September a Bill was passed by
85 votes out of 105 authorising the Government to incur expenditure up to two-
twelfths of the annual budget to cover expenses for the period the 20th July to the
20th September. Little further business was done by the Majlis up to the end
of September. Although the minority maintained their opposition to Sadr, and
although even the majority began to show signs that they did not intend to keep
Sadr in office indefinitely, there was a large measure of agreement among all but
the Tudeh and a few extremists, that it would be unwise to remove Sadr and
precipitate a crisis at a moment when the fate of Persia was perhaps being dis
cussed at the Conference of Foreign Ministers in London.
7. On the 28th September the Sadr Government at last obtained its vote of
confidence from the Majlis by seventy votes to forty. This rather unexpected
success for Sadr was obtained at a moment when much indignation was felt in
I ehran at a telegram sent to the London Conference by a newly-formed
Democratic party of Azerbaijan which demanded autonomy for that province,
and claimed the right, while submitting to the general laws of Iran, “to be
masters in their own land.” Under the influence of a debate on Azerbaijan which
aroused feeling against the minority, the Majlis gave its vote of confidence to
Sadr.
Soviet Penetration.
8. Early in July a delegation of prominent Russian trade unionists arrived
in Tehran in response to an invitation issued by the Tudeh party labour organisa
tion. The visit was arranged without the permission of the Persian Government
who, however, did not dare to stop it. Similar invitations issued to trades unions
in Great Britain, the United States and France appear to have met with no
response. The delegation made a tour of the Caspian provinces and visited
Tabriz where they inspected various factories and talked with the workers but
ignored the managers. The Russian-controlled Persian press devoted much space
to the “ spontaneous " welcome said to have been shown to the visitors by 250,000
trade unionists in Persia. A reasonable estimate of the total industrial popula
tion of Persia is 150,000 and by no means all are members of the Tudeh unions.
At Isfahan, for instance, which is the main industrial centre, the great majority
of the workers belong at present to a trades union which is opposed to the Tudeh,
a fact made abundantly clear by the omission of the Russian delegation to visit
that town where they were uncertain of the reception they might receive. By
agreement with the British military authorities, His Majesty’s Embassy informed
the Soviet Embassy that for security reasons it would not be possible to allow the
Soviet Trade Union Delegation to visit the southern oil area. The Soviet
Ambassador replied that they had no intention of doing so, though he could not
understand what objection there could be.
9. In July there were signs of a general increase in Tudeh propaganda in
Meshed, Hamadan, Kermanshah and Southern Kurdistan. In reply to a speech
by Seyid Zia attacking Russian and Tudeh policy in Persia the Pravda published
a violent article, later broadcast from Moscow, accusing Seyid Zia, the Prime
Minister, and his Government, of reactionary activities and attempts to suppress
freedom, of organising terrorist groups, arming the tribes, &c. The Russians
broadcast the article from the Tehran Wireless^Station. The Persian Minister
of Propaganda intervened just too late to stop it, but in time to cut the trans
mission short. The pro-Russian section of the local press was now publishing
increasingly violent anti-British articles accusing Great Britain of opposing all
movements of freedom and progress in the interests of British imperialism.
10. Meanwhile, in Gilan and Mazanderan control of affairs seemed to be
passing into the hands of Tudeh committees or soviets, and in Azerbaijan Russian
control, exercised either directly or through the Tudeh party, appeared to be
making headway. The Russians seemed to be intensifying their efforts to
produce administrative chaos in the zones occupied by themselves. The Tudeh
were stopping the export of rice from North to South Persia, and seemed to be
trying to strangle the lorry traffic from Tabriz to Tehran. Government officials
were threatened and sometimes suspended or expelled unless they w T ere completelv
subservient to the Russians. The Tudeh which had hitherto chiefly voiced the