Coll 28/39(2) ‘Persia. Printed Correspondence, 1937–’ [‎91v] (182/320)

66
the 5th May stated that during the previous week more than three thousand
had crossed the frontier at Juifa, while several thousand more are reported to
have arrived by steamer at Pahlevi, as many as 670 arriving on the 12th May
alone on two Soviet steamers. It will be remembered that in conversation
with His Majesty’s Minister in February, the Prime Minister put the total
number to be expelled from the Soviet Union at 60,000 and some esti
mates have been as high as 80,000. The Soviet Ambassador recently told me
that the total was not more than 10,000. A conservative estimate recently
obtained from a well-informed Iranian source was 15,000.
2. According to the Soviet Ambassador the persons expelled are mainly
from the Caucasus, and are for the most part small merchants who would not
assimilate Soviet ideas of social and commercial co-operation in the interest
of the State. I gather that the families expelled have for the most part been
resident some years rather than some generations in Russia. His Excellency
informed me also that the expulsions were by no means confined to Iranian
nationals. On the other hand, the Turkish Military Attach^, when questioned
on the subject, stated that he was certain that no Turkish subjects had been
expelled. ,
3. At first very little publicity was given to these expulsions in Iran, and
the Iranian Government appeared to be taking the line that they welcomed the
return of these Iranian nationals or had even invited them to return. Rec
ently, however, this attitude has been abandoned, and the newspaper Ittela’at
has been permitted to publish a strongly anti-Soviet article from a corres
pondent at Tabriz describing the miserable condition of the thousands of
refugees arriving there. I have the honour to enclose copies of a summary of
this article which appeared in the Journal de Tehran. Nevertheless, the ac
quiescence of the Iranian Government in the expulsions is perhaps more
significant than the appearance of this anti-Soviet article. It seems likely
that the Iranian Government have had in mind the possibility that they may
themselves wish to expel considerable numbers of foreign subjects, as they are
already doing on a small scale with the British Berberis, and recently threaten
ed to do in the case of Iraqi Jews. From a conversation with a well-informed
member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I gathered that the Iranian
Government objected less to the expulsions themselves than to the fact that
the people expelled had not been allowed to bring out any of their property
with them, and that they have reached Iran in a state of great misery.
4. Some publicity has been given to the measure taken by the Iranian
Government to provide for the refugees arriving at Pahlevi and Julfa, and to
arrange for their medical inspection and for the isolation of any suffering from
infectious diseases such as typhus etcetera. It is understood that many of
the refugees have been distributed in East Iran, and His Majesty’s Consul-
General for Khorasan has reported the arrival at Meshed of many refugees in
a state of destitution. There is also a certain amount of anxiety as to the
social and political ideas that some of these people, in spite of their severe
treatment, may bring in with them from Soviet Russia.
5. Apart from the reason for those expulsions given by the Soviet Ambas-
sador, it has been difficult to find a motive for the Soviet Government having
inaugurated such action now. I believe that it has long been their practice
to remove their own nationals whom they regarded as undesirable from
r^? n ^! er d^tricts to the interior : e.g., from the neighbourhood of Lenkoran to
Siberia. Some regard the present expulsions as due to an attack of nerves,
others as retaliation either for Iran s excessive patronage of German goods,
oi or the boycott exercised against the Soviet Embassy and late Consulates
m this country.
6. I am sending copies of this despatch to the Secretary to the Govern
ment ol India m the External Affairs Department, to His Majesty’s Repre
sentatives at Moscow and Ankara, to His Majesty’s Consul-General at Khoras-
san an o His Majesty s Consul at Tabriz. This Consulate which is near one
expulsions has, as Your Lordship is aware, been
tn 1 ^ ^ recent Jy* I am n0w asking Mr. Baillie to send me a report
to supplement and possibly to correct the information in this despatch.
»