Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎168v] (336/749)

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6. The trial of certain officials of the police for complicity in the murder
of certain Persian notables in the reign of Reza Shah is finished (see Summary
No. 5/44, paragraph 3). One of the accused has been sentenced to death, three
others to imprisonment for life, ten and nine years respectively.
Economic. -
7. Dr. Millspaugh has issued a circular to all officials of the Finance
Department in the provinces stressing the Finance Ministry’s concern that
monopoly goods—that is, cloth, tea and sugar—should be distributed regularly
and impartially. Where stocks are available, distribution should continue or
begin at once. Demands should be forwarded to the Ministry for Supplies
necessary to maintain at all times stocks sufficient for six months’ consumption.
In each distribution centre a commission is to be formed of the Finance Agent,
the Bakshdar and reliable local notabilities to control distribution among the
villages and in tribal areas. The distribution within the village or the tribe is
to be entrusted to a committee of local notabilities. These local committees will
prepare a list of the inhabitants of their village or tribal units, with the number
of their identity cards, which will form the basis for the supply of monopoly
goods. Finance agents are to see that the people are aware of the quantity of
goods issued for distribution and their prices.
8. Dr. Millspaugh has created a special section in the Ministry of Finance
which will control the Departments of Transport, Rationing and Distribution,
formerly controlled by the Price Stabilisation Section. The duties of this
section are : the rationing of all monopoly goods except grain and bread; the
transport of such goods for distribution to the appropriate centres; their
distribution to the consumer; and the administration of Government markets.
The section will control all monopoly goods from the time they are released from
customs, if imported, or from the time they are notified by the Procurements
Department to be available, if produced locally.
9. The Minister of Commerce and Industry (General Shafai) has resigned
on the ostensible grounds that the Administrator-General of Finance has refused
funds for the payment of the wages of employees of the munition factories
working for the Russians (see Summary No. 7/44, paragraph 3). Dr. Millspaugh,
in an interview given to the press, said he would shortly authorise the payment
of wages to employees of the factories of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry
for the month that ended on the 21st February, but he considered that State
factories should be self-supporting and should not be dependent on subsidies, as
were the munition factories. He hoped shortly to make arrangements that would
render these subsidies unnecessary. The necessity for the subsidising of the State
munition factories arises from the omission of the Russians to pay for any of the
products they take.
10. The interest to be paid on the Treasury bonds, whose impending issue
was reported in Summary No. 7/44. paragraph 5,^ is 4 per cent, per annum on the
three-month bonds and 44 per cent, on the six-month bonds.
11. His Majesty’s Consul at Bandar Abbas reports that 25,000 tons of red
oxide have accumulated at Hormuz awaiting buyers.
A 'p'pointments — Civil.
12. —(i) Rahmat Atabegi to the Persian Consul at Beirut.
(ii) The new chief of police, Muhammad Hussein Mirza Jahanbani, has
been given the police rank of Sarpas, equivalent to brigadier.
Persian Forces.
Army.
13. One of the Russian-inspired Persian papers recently commented on the
alleged decision of the Soviet Government to present to the Persian army the full
equipment for a motorised formation, consisting of aircraft, artillery, tanks,
anti-aircraft guns and motor vehicles. One of the defects, it said, of the
Persian army of to-day was that it had no experience of fighting or knowledge
of modern weapons. If the news was true, then the gift would do much to
remedy these defects and to inspire the officers with a new spirit. But officers
should remember that, although discipline should inspire the army, it should
never be allowed to develop into blind obedience. An officer was first a citizen,
and he must not allow himself to be used against the interests of the nation. The
training that personnel of the Persian army would receive from the Russians in
these new arms would teach them the real spirit of soldiering and enable them
to found a well-trained military organisation.