Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎96v] (192/749)

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rials for the army. He must also find 645 million rials during the first three
months for the purchase of the wheat crop, 310 million for the Persian munition
factories under contract to the Russians, 100 million for a canning factory An East India Company trading post. (also
working for the Russians), 46 million for purchases of cotton/ 200 million for
purchase of opium, 100 million for the Khuzestan wheat-growing project and a
revolving fund of 100 million for his price-fixing scheme. Much of this expendi
ture should come back, sooner or later, to the Government. All in all, however, he £ ^
estimates that the Government will find it necessary to borrow no less than^w
1,500 million rials in excess of taxation revenue. Owing to the rise in prices,
expenditure has greatly increased, while revenue has fallen away owing to
insecurity and disorder and a reduction of receipts from customs and State
monopolies.
A 'ppointments — Civil.
5. Murteza Quli Bayat (F.O. 50; M.A. 65), Vice-President of the Majlis, to
be Minister of Finance.
Persian Forces.
6 . Conditions in the army and gendarmerie are disquieting. There is
grave discontent among officers, whose pay is entirely inadequate in relation to
the prevailing cost of living, resulting in an increase in corruption and an almost
mutinous insubordination. The men are generally little better off owing to the
reduction in rations, due to the shortage of wheat and the high cost of food
stuffs. Animals, in the majority, have been reduced almost to immobility by
starvation owing to lack of fodder, and the mortality is high. Generally, there is
a lack of confidence in the Government and of faith in the altruism of its
intentions or the consistency of its policy. Mutual suspicion and jealousy among
senior officers, lack of co-operation of the General Staff with the Ministry for
War, opposition to the implementation of the proposals of the American advisers
and political intrigues all make for vacillation, indiscipline and inaction. The
army budget for the current year has not yet been sanctioned. Dr. Millspaugh has
agreed to increase the allotment of 100 million rials, but the Ministry for War is
holding out for a further increase. The cost of General Ridley’s reorganised
army with the reforms in pay and conditions that he considers necessary was
estimated to he 170 millon rials.
Police.
7. The Bill for the establishment of a police training college has been
approved by the Majlis.
Internal Security.
Pars.
8 . General Shahbakhti, after a period of indecision, has now reported to the
Government that certain sections of the Qasbgai are bent on mischief and that
security in Fars in general, and on the Bushire-Isfahan road in particular,
cannot be maintained, nor can the harvest be collected, unless he takes offensive
action against them. He has been given discretion to take such action as he
considers necessary, giving the security of the road first priority. Qashgai bands
have been pillaging; complaints against them and appeals for protection are now
reaching the Government from landowners and villagers in Fars. Nasir Qashgai
is reported to be preventing the transport of supplies from the countryside^to
Shiraz, and his supporters in Tehran are now finding it difficult to rouse anv
sympathy for him.
Bakhtiari.
9. It is reported that operations are about to begin for the relief of the
besieged Persian garrison in Qaleh Tul and that subsequently Persian forces are
to be withdrawn to cover the oilfields. The Persian Government has not been
able to send the reinforcements considered necessary for the re-establishment of
the garrisons at Izeh and Qaleh Tul and to maintain a line of communication.
The Bakhtiari are reported to be increasingly lawless in Chaharmahal, where
Persian garrisons are small, and a report from Isfahan says that Abul Qasim
Bakhtiari is preparing to cut the road by which reinforcements would be sent
from Isfahan. These disturbances may be partly seasonal, but the temper of
the tribes of the south is now such that the task of the Persian Government in