Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎87v] (174/749)

mmm
2
\
the ^previous year, while for the same periods expenditure showed an increase
of 590 million rials. The measures which he proposed to advise as remedies
were :—
from
(a) Stabilisation of prices and rationing of necessities of life.
(b) Revision of taxes with a view to withdrawing paper currency
circulation and reducing the deficit in the budget.
( c ) Reduction of national expenditure and cessation of borrowing from the
National Bank.
(d) Development of agriculture and industry. 4
(e) Increase of imports as far as transport would allow.
(/) 1 he more equitable distribution of imported goods.
(y) Sale of the State lands.
(h) Importation of gold.
(?) Sale of metal coin against paper money.
5. 1 he bread situation in Tehran has eased. Supplies of imported grain are
reaching the town, as are also supplies from the provinces, as a result of improved
transport conditions and the offer of higher prices by the Government. The Food
Department has now some four-five days’ reserves in hand.
Items of Interest.
6. typhus, which is endemic in Tehran, has now become epidemic on a
serious scale. No accurate figure of the number of cases is obtainable, but it is
estimated at from 15,000 to 30,000. The Persian Government finds itself short
of hospital accommodation and equipment, and improvised hospitals are being-
set up in various Government and Royal buildings, and the Majlis has'sanctioned
I a credit of 5 million rials for necessary expenses. The Commander-in-chief,
Persia and Iraq Force, has authorised the use of an Indian General Hospital for
Persian typhus patients. There are less serious epidemics at Kerman, Zahidan,
Meshed and other towns of Persia.
7. An aii craft of the 1 ersian Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, flying on
the legular mail service Irom Bagdad to I eh ran, crash-landed between Khanakin
and Kermanshah. Two of the occupants were killed and three wounded.
A ff ointments — Civil.
8.—(i) Dr. Muhammad Sajjidi (F.O. 183), to be Director of the Mortgage
Bank.
(ii) Nasir Quli I’temadi, to be an Under-Secretary of State in the Prime
Minister s Office.
(iii) Colonel Mustafa Dadfar, to be a Director of the Bread Department in
the Ministry of Food.
Internal Security.
Western A zerbaijan.
9. His Majesty’s Vice-Consul in Tabriz, who recently toured in Western
Azerbaijan, reports that there is considerable anxiety lest the Kurds should this
spi mg repeat their depredations of last year. They are buying arms wherever
they can with the large profits made from the sale of grain' in Iraq and on the
black market m Persia. They oppose the establishment of posts of Persian
gendarmerie m tribal territory, but in some cases have been forced by Russian
pressure to agree. They have been raiding across the Turkish frontier and in
one raul carried off 2,000 sheep, of which 200 were recovered and returned by
the Russians. His Majesty’s Vice-Consul is of opinion that, if the Russians make
plain their disapproval of Kurdish lawlessness, serious disorder this sprino- need
not be* feared. r 5
Fars.
10. The situation remains quiet and no information has yet been received
that General Shahbakhti has yet made any effective move against Nasir Oash'uii
The nature of the problem has already changed with the arrival of spring Those
Persians who favour strong measures against Nasir are now being accused of
being unpatriotic pawns of British policy. °
Bakhtiari.
fU report has been received that Abul Qasim and his followers have
forced the evacuation of a Persian military post at Izeh (Malamir) The delay
m dealing with the situation in Fars is having a bad effect on the tribal situation
everywhere in South Persia.