Coll 28/67 ‘Persia. Annual Reports, 1932–’ [‎258r] (515/644)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT
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PERSIA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
^une 17, 1942.
Section 1.
(16230)
[E 3655/3655/34]
Copy No. j \ 2
Sir R. Bullard to Mr. Eden.—(Received June 17.)
gi r ^ Tehran, May 26. 1942.
IN accordance with the instructions contained in the Right Hon. the
Viscount Halifax’s circular despatch of the 4th November, 1939, I have the
honour to transmit herewith a political report on Persia for the year 1941. Ihe
report has been prepared with some difficulty. In the first place, most of
the records for the period from the 1st January, 1941, until the occupation by
Allied troops in August have been destroyed; in the second, Mr. Greenway, to
whom I am indebted for a draft of a considerable portion of the report, wa J
transferred, and it was some while before time could be found, by those who had
a first-hand knowledge of the events of 1941, to bring the report to completion.
I have, &c.
R. W. BULLARD.
Enclosure.
Annual Political Report for 1941.
FROM the beginning of 1941 until the invasion of Persia by the B rit i s h and
Soviet troops in August mere were no serious attempts on the part of the Persian
Government to take advantage of the difficulties of Great Britain or to lenew
the pressure which had been applied in the previous year by the cancellation ot
the credits agreements and the blackmailing of the A.LO.C. over the royalty
question. The Shah, whose rigid policy of maintaining neutrality and ot
pursuing his plan of economic development was stressed m the report on Persia
for 1940 still hoped that he would be able to secure the maximum advantage
from both sides. In accordance with this policy, therefore, his Government
turned a deaf ear to British protests about the presence s u ia lar g®
numbers of potentially dangerous Germans and to the risk to which both Butis
and Persian interests were exposed by the presence of Axis merchant vessels
laid up, with skeleton Axis crews, in Persian waters. This problem, which was
to be solved so dramatically later in the year, was even at the beginning 01 1941
a source of considerable anxiety to His Majesty’s Government. In January His
Majesty’s Minister renewed the representations which he had made without
success in the previous year, and drew the attention of the Persian Government
to the fact that, among the excessive number of so-called German specmhsts and
business men, were many who were credibly believed to be German officers, and
who had, in any case, no real connexion with the firms by whom they were
nominally employed. The danger which this situation presented to Peisia as
well as to Great Britain was stressed in vain; the Persian Government com
placently replied that measures had already been taken to keep all Germans under
surveillance, to send away some suspicious characters, and to grant visas to
Germans desiring to enter Persia only at Tehran and after exhaustive enquiry.
They calculated that these measures were amply sufficient to obviate any untoward
incident.
2. There was, unfortunately, some ostensible justification tor the presence
in Persia of many of the German specialists, since there was much machinery
of German origin to be installed or maintained in connexion with the Shah s
numerous industrial schemes; and the very fact that these men weie nominally
employed in undertakings in which His Majesty had a personal financial interest
made it impossible for his Government, who had long ceased to resist his will,
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