Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎157v] (314/749)

a
officers have been in some cases dismissed and in others arrested for corrupt
practices. Even a few convictions will have a good effect.
5. Unrest among workers continues to show itself. In Isfahan telephone
operators went on strike for some days for higher wages. In accordance with the
promise made to workers in Government employ after the disturbances reported
in Summary No. 1/44, paragraph 3, an interdepartmental commission was
appointed to fix minimum wages for unskilled workers. It recommended for th(*
approval of the Council of Ministers that unmarried men should draw 9 ria#^
a day, married men without families 12 , and with families 15 rials.
6 . Throughout the rural districts the people suffer from a shortage of tea,
sugar and cloth. The Chief Administrator of the Price Stabilisation Section has
recently published the fact that there are in Government stores 28 million yards
of cloth and ample stocks of sugar. It is solely due to corruption and to the
inefficiency of distribution that supplies do not reach the people who so badly
need them.
A ppointments — Civil.
7. —^(i) Ghulam Hussein Ashrafi, formerly Director-General in the Ministry
of Industry and Mines, to be Under-Secretary of State in the office of the
President of the Council of Ministers.
(ii) Muhammad Saruri to be Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of
the Interior.
(iii) Saiyyid Ali Nassr to be Persian Minister to China.
(iv) Mubassir Roshani to be Farmandar of Tabriz.
(v) Fathullah Nuri Isfandiari (F.O. 96) to be Persian Minister with the
Polish Government in London.
(vi) Lissan Sepehr to be Inspector-General in the Ministry of the Interior.
(vii) Qasim Hakimia to be Director of the Mortgage Bank.
(viii) Fazlullah Bahrami has resumed the appointment of Chief of the
Municipality.
(ix) Khosrow Panah ( Sardar Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division. Mufakham) to be Farmandar of Qasvin.
Persian Forces.
8 . It seems possible that the new Minister for War will not be content to
be the cypher he was intended to be by the Shah. He has already made formal
protest against the conduct of General Razmara, the Chief of the Shah’s Military
Secretariat, who in one case passed the Shah's orders to him in discourteous
terms, and in another issued orders for the dismissal and replacement of the
Military Governor of Tehran without reference to the Minister or the Govern
ment. He has invited the American advisers generally to take a more active part
in the reform and supervision of administration, has authorised General Ridley
to appoint an American officer to take executive charge of the administration of
the Isfahan Division, where the divisional commander was being obstructive, and
has demanded from the American advisers within ten days a scheme for the
reorganisation of the Finance Branch of the War Office, to include a 50 per cent,
reduction in its staff.
9. Increases of pay have been sanctioned for military officers and civilian
officials of the Ministry for War on the scale already approved for other Govern
ment servants (see Summary No. 44/43, paragraph 5). According to the Minister
for War, these increases are “ sufficient to enable officers to live on their pay.” He
now intends to insist that corruption shall no longer be condoned and that all
officers guilty of dishonesty shall be brought to trial.
has srn<e been
C\ owevnor - Qf.'nzto-t
Internal Security.
North Khorassan.
10 . Quarrels have again broken out between the leaders of the Zaafaranlu
and Bicharanlu Kurds in the neighbourhood of Shirvan, but no reports have yet
been received of inter-tribal fighting. Hold-ups of U.K.C.C. lorries have occurred
between Quchan and the Russian frontier, which may be connected with these
tribal disturbances.
Pars.
11. General Jahanbani has been expressing some anxiety regarding the
possibility of disturbances arising from the hostility existing between Abdullah
r
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