Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎157r] (313/749)

INDEXED ri
... 29 FEB 1944
THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OP HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
PERSIA.
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January 27, 1944.
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SECRET.
With the C&ws*
Section 1.
of 'the
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601/422/34]
for Forei
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Copy No.
Sir R. Bullard to Mr. Eden.—(Received 27th January.)
(No. 32.)
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. 2 for the period of the 3rd to
16th January, 1944, compiled by the military attache to this legation.
Tehran, Ylth January, 1944.
(Secret.)
Enclosure.
Military Attache's Intelligence Summary No. 2 for the Period
^rd-lftth January, 1944.
Persian Affairs.
Political.
THE Majlis is due to be opened on the 22nd January; invitations for the
opening ceremony have been issued, and it seems probable that by that date there
will be present in Tehran more than the sixty-nine Deputies necessary to form
a quorum. The total number of Deputies elected to date is seventy-five. About
one-third of the votes cast in the Tehran elections have been counted, and a list
of the leading candidates is published daily in the press. These for some days
included the names of Saiyyid Abul Qasim Kashani and Matin Daftari, against
whom charges are pending of having abetted German plots in Persia. The
impropriety of advertising to the world the extent of the esteem in which these
notorious Germanophils are held by the voters of Tehran and the bad impression
that would thereby be made on Persia’s allies was reluctantly recognised by the
Government, and their names no longer appear in the lists of favourites.
2. Suleiman Muhsin Iskandari (Suleiman Mirza), leader of the Tudeh
party, and for some years a professing Communist, has died. His funeral was
attended by representatives of the Soviet Embassy.
Economic.
3 . In his monthly report for the month the 24th October- 22 nd November
Dr. Millspaugh discusses the principles that should guide the framing of the
budget for the coming year, and particularly the conflicting demands of agricul
tural development, public education, public health and security. He makes some
pertinent remarks about the army and gendarmerie which will^ meet with no
approval from the Shah. The army, ne says, has no task except that of internal
policing; he encourages the Government and the Deputies to resist demands for
an increased budget allotment for the army and urges them to consider the
possibility of reducing its size in order to make funds available for its better
equipment and its greater contentment. The Shah, as is well known, is
demanding an increased budget for a larger army, whose task, he likes to think,
is to maintain the independence of Persia and add to his own importance. xLe
army is likely to be a first-class issue in the new Majlis, both as regards the share
it consumes of the national revenue with very little benefit to the nation, and as
regards the Shah’s pretensions to make it the instrument of his personal policy.
4 Probably as a result of the influence of American advisers m various
administrations,' investigations are being made into large-scale embezzlements
and frauds. Officials of the Road Transport Department, of the Cereals and
Bread Department and other departments of the Ministry of Finance, and army
[50—3] . .
— ,
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