Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎214r] (427/749)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF
HIS ^PlT^jCNyS MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
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PERSIA.
^ 0 ^ ) 5 September 29, 1944.
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Section 1.
5955/422/34]
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Copy No. 126
Sir R. Bullard to Mr. Eden.—(Received §9^ September.)
^ (No. 365.)
(V *-> ' HIS Majesty’s representative presents his compliments to His Majesty’s
rt po Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and has the honour to transmit
A herewith a copy of Intelligence Summary No. 35 for the period of the 4 th to
l 17th September, 1944, compiled by the military attache to this legation.
iV5- Tehran, ISth September, 1944.
H-fif-v/-
i
Enclosure.
Military Attache's Intelligence Summary No. 35 for the Period
Mh-llth September, 1944.
(Secret.) ——-—
Persian Affairs.
Political.
OPPOSITION in the Majlis has successfully managed to prolong the Cabinet
crisis by a spate of talk and criticism which has lasted throughout the week and
postponed the taking of a vote on the Government’s programme. It is generally
expected that the Government will have a majority when the vote is taken, but
it can have no confidence that it will long be able to enjoy the support of a
majority. General Firuz has not accepted his appointment as Minister for War.
Indeed, it is reported that he has definitely refused on the grounds that he does
not wish to be associated with a Government which has no hope of any effective
achievement.
2. The Cabinet has adopted the programme of its predecessor (see Summary
No. 13, paragraph 3) with the following additions :—
(a) The safeguarding of public security by putting into execution the
principle of law; the autonomy of the judiciary and the suppression
of all elements of disorder.
(b) The stabilisation of prices and the reduction of the cost of living;
energetic suppression of hoarding.
(c) The execution of the law of compulsory primary education and the
revision of programmes of instruction.
(d) Restrictions on the cultivation of opium.
(e) Reform of the electoral law.
Economic.
3. The Persian press states that the value of imports in the year
March 1943-March 1944 was 1,527,233,572 rials and in the previous year
1,313,910,532 rials. The value of exports in 1943-44 was 703i,986,178 rials and
in the previous year 557,719,058 rials.
4. The Ministry of Health gives the following figures of the incidence of
certain diseases in Persia :—
Number of Cases
reported. Deaths.
Typhus (December 1942 to December 1943) ... 12,912 1,617
Smallpox (March 1943 to March 1944) ... 1,253 425
Malaria (March 1942 to March 1943) ... ... 208,559 735
The number of unreported cases probably exceeds the above figures in the case
of malaria.