Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎21r] (41/749)

SfcCRiPT
* -
/ sirJ-c a_ .
CC ?Y
sr^
PERSIA.
7*—
August 24, 1942.
SECRET*
(\o 3 t
Section 1.
""jS 4985/19/34]
Copy No.
*S'iV- /?. Bullard to Mr. Eden.—{Received August 24.)
(No. 257.)
HIS Majesty’s representative presents his compliments to His Majesty’s
Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and has the honour to transmit
herewith a copy of Intelligence Summary No. 31, 29th July-4th August, compiled
by the military attache to this legation.
Tehran, August 4, 1942.
To)
(j
7 \
114
Enclosure.
(Secret.)
Military Attache s Intelligence Summary No. 31 for the Period July 29 to
August 4, 1942.
£ECd. P4
Persian Affairs.
Political.
THE Government resigned on the 30th July. On the 2nd August the Majlis
voted in favour of the premiership being offered to Qavam es Sultaneh, who
received fifty-five votes; Soheily, the retiring Prime Minister, being next with
twenty-seven votes.
2. Ahmad Qavam, Qavam es Sultaneh (Persia, F.O. 213, M.A. 295), was a
very well-known figure in Persian political life until twenty years ago when,
on the rise to power of Reza Shah, he withdrew into private life after a period
of exile. He has held many portfolios and has had some administrative experience
as a governor-general. He had energy, some force of character, cleverness and
guile. It remains to be seen how twenty years of absence from political life have
affected his character. His selection is a disappointment to the small class of
honest young Persians anxious for reform. To them he represents the old school
of corrupt politician drawn from the land-owning classes. Incongruously enough,
his candidature w'as discreetly supported by the Soviet Embassy. He had many
enemies and will inevitably make many more if he genuinely attempts to solve
the problems before him.
3. The new Government will find a formidable task in front of it. Its
predecessor did little to solve the problem of the country’s food supplies. If it
takes the drastic steps that are essential, the new Government will arouse the
hostility of the landowners (to which class the new Prime Minister belongs) and
of the number of merchants now hoping to profiteer in grain and other food
stuffs. If it fails it may be faced with riots that will have to be suppressed by
force. Necessary measures to economise and to make the best use of the country’s
transport resources will also bring it much unpopularity, while a policy of blatant
co-operation with the Allies in such matters as the surrender to British custody
of prominent persons suspected of Germanophil sentiments, and the organisation
of A.R.P. measures would in the present atmosphere of dislike for the alliance
and of the Allies make its position very precarious in the absence of active and
more than moral support. Add to these difficulties an army determined to restrict
to the minimum Cabinet and parliamentary control, and having at least the
passive sympathy of the Shah.
4. the outgoing Prime Minister, in a speech to the Majlis in which he
announced his resignation, claimed that during the four and a half months of
his tenure of office order had been restored throughout the country recent riots
were due to intrigues and not to natural causes. Every effort had ’been made to
[32—64] OrpJju? ojl^o (o'"
Q+r- flUjuJiJku
! INC