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2
to have blown up very rapidly, and Monsieur Bodard told me that all he
yet knew about it was as follows.
2. On the 6 th December Monsieur Bodard had an audience with the
Shah, at which His Imperial Majesty was in his most agreeable form and
went out of his way to express his pleasure at his talk with the Minister.^ ^
Monsieur Bodard the same day underwent an operation, and has since then ®
been confined to his bed, where in fact he still is.
3. At about the same time, it seems, certain minor French newspapers
were led, on the occasion of a cat-show, to indulge in some of the usual
puns on ‘chat’ and ‘Shah’, a temptation which the French press has on
previous occasions been unable to resist, and which, under the present
regime, causes violent resentment. Monsieur Bodard is not yet certain of
the further course of events : he believes, however, that the Persian Minister
in Paris was received by Monsieur Bonnet in person, but that, when the
Minister asked for a second interview, it was impossible to Monsieur Bonnet
owing to his other engagements, himself to receive him. The Persian
Minister, Monsieur Sepahbodi, has a great sense of his own importance and
Monsieur Bodard suspects that he probably made the worst of matters, and
may have represented that the Shah’s representative was not being treated
with due consideration. I understand also that the Iranian Government
requested that proceedings might be instituted against the offending paper
or papers under the recent decree law dealing with • libellous attacks on
ioreign countries, but that the French Government thought it impossible to
adopt this procedure in the present instance.
4. The French Minister here was, during all this, slowly recovering
from his operation and received no intimation from the Ministry of Foreign
Affaiis that anything was amiss. The first danger signal was the appear
ance, during the last few days, of anti-French articles in the Iranian press.
These were followed, on December 29th, by a note informing the Minister
that diplomatic relations had been severed. Monsieur Bodard immediately
te egraphed to Paris for instructions, but had not received them when I saw
him today.
^ believed that the Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign
Affairs made some attempt to dissuade the Shah from breaking off relations,
and I have no doubt they would see the undesirability of such a step. It
is, however, most unlikely that they would press their objections bevond the
point of safety, and it is impossible to blame them.
6 . It has long been a truism that the relations between other countries
and Iran are at the mercy of journalists abroad. The present instance is an
extreme example of this fact, and it must be a source of anxiety that such
a grave step as the severance of relations should be decided upon with so
little sense of proportion or responsibility.
7. Copies of this despatch are being sent to the Secretary to the Gov
ernment of India m the External Affairs Department and to His Majesty’s
Ambassadors at Bagdad and Paris.
No. 11 .
To
The Secretary to the Government of India in the External Affairs
Department, New Delhi.
With the compliments
°f
His Majesty's Representative.
Tehran despatch No. 21 -E. of 26th January 1939.
(Reference: Tehran despatch No. 161 of 28th July 1934 )
British Legation,
Tehran,
r 2Gth January, 1939.