Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎176v] (352/749)

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local affairs; long-term plans for agriculture, industry,*commerce, public health
and education; improvement of the situation of Government employees;
encouragement for the deserving and punishment for the delinquent.
4. A Tradesmen’s and Guilds’ Union has been formed in Tehran whose
alleged objects are to improte the economic position of the country; to fight
against speculation and profiteering; to promote charitable works; to protect
workers and employees of trades and guilds; and to strengthen the system of
parliamentary government.
5. The arrest and trial of Soheily, the previous Prime Minister, has been
demanded by certain Deputies on charges of accepting bribes, unconstitutional
interference in the elections, illegal suspension of newspapers and smuggling
jewels out of Persia in the baggage of agents whom he had provided with
diplomatic passports.
Economic.
6. His Majesty’s Consul-General at Tabriz reports that; owing to the ban
imposed by the Soviet authorities on the export of dried fruits from Azerbaijan,
great hardship is being imposed on growers and merchants. Estimated stocks are
now 2,100 tons of almonds, 16,000 tons of raisins and 9,000 tons of peaches.
7. The municipal tax of 3 per cent, levied on all goods and food-stuffs
brought to towns for sale has been abolished from the 21st March.
A ypointments — Civil.
8. Muhammad Nakhai to be Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State to the
Prime Minister.
Persian Forces.
A ppointments — Military.
9-—(i) Sarhang Kamran Pursaif to command the Behbehan Brigade (10th
Khuzistan Division).
(ii) Sarhang II Habibullah Deihimi, Chief of Staff of the Southern Army,
to be Sarhang.
(iii) Sartip Ali Akbar Sha’ri to be Military Governor of Tehran.
Internal Security.
Fars.
10. Nasir Qashgai has been sending threatening telegrams to the Majlis and
the Government. The people of Fars, he says, are so enraged at the interference
of the Government in the elections (to which he likes to attribute his failure to be
elected for Shiraz) and are so likely to # be driven to despair by famine that he
dissociates himself from any responsibility for the good behaviour of the tribes.
This mood, if it lasts, may result in some robbery. A village has already been
looted—on the night of the 27th-28th March—in the near vicinity of Shiraz, but
Qashgai complicity has not been proved. Nasir’s demands grow more ambitious.
He is now hinting that he should be made Governor-General of Fars. General
Jahanbani has tentatively resigned, possibly because he fears that the situation
may get out of hand.
Kerman.
11. In October last operations were carried out by Persian troops against
an old tribal brigand of the Serjan district, Hussein Buchakchi, which resulted
in his submission. His son, Akbar Khan Shujapur, however, remained an outlaw
and has only recently surrendered himself, bringing in with him the rifles taken
last year from the gendarmerie at Baft. The remaining prominent outlaw of this
tribe, Murad Ali Murad, is still at large.
British Affairs.
12. Since it has now been decided that an invasion of locusts into South-
East Persia is improbable, the Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan Frontier Force Regiment and the
R.A.F. anti-locust flight are to be withdrawn from the Bandar Abbas-Jask area
(see Summary No. 5/44, paragraph 8).
Russian Affairs.
13. Further information shows that the movements of Russian troops along
the Turkish frontier, referred to in Summary No. 11/44, paragraph 10, were
almost certainly merely normal reliefs. The increase in numbers is inconsiderable.