Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎189r] (377/749)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HI& BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
OF HI& BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S
PERSIA.
May 31, 1944.
SECRET.
With the CoinpUrnent*
*>* ti a
Section 1.
4ry of
for Fci^ ^ i ATfal
Copy No. 12
19JUN
^ 3257/422/34]
(No. 221.)
Sir R. Bullard to Mr. Eden.—{Received Z\st May)
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. 20, for the period of the 15th to
the 21st May, 1944, compiled by the military attache to this legation.
Tehran, ttnd May, 1944.
Enclosure.
(Secret.)
Military Attache's Intelligence Summary No. 20, for the period \hth May
to 2\st May, 1944.
Persian Affairs.
Political.
AS was expected, the Government survived the interpellation made by the
Tudeh Deputy, larivar, on the appointment of Reza Afshar to be Governor-
General of Isfahan. The ludeh Deputies and the press, with a few exceptions,
expressed great indignation that an official who had been convicted of corruption
should be reappointed to a Government post. As far as the Tudeh party is
concerned the indignation had its origin not so much in righteousness as in the
knowledge that Reza Afshar is a strong man who may deal firmly with disturbers
of the peace and attempts to compel the workers to join the Tudeh party. The
basis of the interpellation was that the appointment was illegal because of
Afshar s conviction. The Prime Minister said that he had taken legal opinion
before making the appointment and claimed that it was justified by expediency
and by the results already achieved. He promised, however, to refer the question
of legality to the High Court of Appeal and he was then given a vote of confidence
by 73 of the 92 Deputies present.
2. The Shah returned to Tehran from his visit to Isfahan and Shiraz on
the 17th May. His Majesty’s Consul in Shiraz says that his visit seems to have
been welcomed by the people of Shiraz and that the enthusiasm with which he
was greeted had every appearance of being genuine. The people of Shiraz are
notoriously volatile, but there is among them a long-standing tradition of loyalty
to the Crown and opposition to the Government and its officials. It is surmised
that one of the reasons for the Shah’s journey was to demonstrate that it was
not only Seyyid Zia and the Tudeh party who took an interest in the tribes.
He remarked to the brothers of Nasir Qashgai that as a King he needed friends
and that he hoped to find those friends in the tribes.
3. The detenus arrested at the request of the Allies in August last year
have been transferred from British custody at Sultanabad to Persian custody
in Tehran.
Economic.
4. Recent reports from Kermanshah and Khorassan do not confirm the
earlier optimistic estimates of the coming harvest. Both these provinces were
relied upon to have surpluses sufficient to supply Tehran and to contribute to
the deficit areas. Reports from Kermanshah in particular, which are from a
reliable source, speak of disturbingly extensive failure of crops. On the other
hand the Russians have now allowed it to be discovered that Azerbaijan has a
surplus from the current harvest of 15,000 tons of grain.
[54—21]
/