Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎214v] (428/749)

2
Persian Forces.
A rmy.
5. It has been decided not to proceed with General Ridley’s scheme for the
organisation at each divisional headquarters of independent recruit training
centres under the control of a central training staff. The scheme was never
popular with the present Chief of Staff or with divisional commanders. Only^^.
in Tehran had such a centre been fully organised, but during the months it wa^^"
in operation it had never been provided with efficient instructors or with
necessary equipment. It has now been abolished. Recruits will in future be
trained, as before, in regiments.
6 . According to the Chief of the Staff, Dr. Millspaugh has agreed to find a
further 15 million tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. for the army budget for the remaining six months of
the current financial year. It is not yet known from what source this amount is
to be obtained—whether by reducing the allotments to other Ministries, by
increased taxation or by borrowing.
7. Thfe remaining five Anson aircraft due to the Persian Government have
now arrived in Tehran and have been delivered to the Persian air force (see
Summary No. 32/44, paragraph 7).
Appointments — Military.
8 . —(i) Sartip ’Ali Akbar She’ri to command 7th (Kerman and Mekran)
Division.
(ii) Sarhang Mir Hussein Hashimi to command 5th (Luristan) Division.
(iii) Sarhang Muhammad Ahmad Sartipi to be Provost Marshal.
(iv) Sartip Ghulam ’Ali Ansari to be an Army Inspector.
(v) Sarhang Neisar to be Military Governor of Mahabad.
Internal Security.
Western A zerbaijan.
9. From several sources reports have- been received to the effect that the
I movement for Kurdish independence is gaining strength in the Mahabad area.
Five issues have^now been made of the paper of the movement, the Nishtman,
which is believecl to be written mostly in Mahabad and is known to be printed in
j Tabriz with the help of the Russians. The Russians are generally suspected of
being behind the movement; they are certainly watching it without disapproval.
The Persian authorities are growing increasingly anxious. They are still trying
to get "Russian approval to the location of an adequate Persian garrison at
1 Mahabad. Meanwhile, they have posted military officers as Governors of Mahabad
and Sardasht, although their authority is likely to be only nominal. They are
also considering plans for the extension of Government’s authority in those parts
of Kurdistan where the Russians do not impose restrictions on military
movements.
Kermanshah.
10. A report has been received that Hama Rashid of Baneh, who was in
revolt against the Persian Government in 1942, has attacked another Kurdish
chief, Mahmud Kanisenani, and driven him out of his village of Merivan. Both
these chiefs have for the past two years enjoyed a considerable degree of autonomy
in their areas and have accepted responsibility and subsidies for the maintenance
of order. Mahmud Kanisenani is now appealing for the intervention of Persian
j troops. Kurdish chiefs cannot for long refrain from demonstrating to the
Persian Government the necessity for the establishment of firm Government
authority in Kurdish territory.
11 . Two Kalkhani chiefs, Rashid-es-Sultaneh and Rashid Agha, who had
for some months been under detention by the Persian authorities, recently
absconded and returned to their tribal country. Operations for their recapture
were initiated by Persian troops, and these may have helped to drive the
absconders into the territory of a hostile tribe, where one was killed and the other
wounded and captured. The prestige of the Persian Government is now considered
to have been vindicated.
Bakhtiari.
12. ' The Persian Chief of Staff reports that the operations for the collection
of arms from the Moghui and certain sections of the Mamivand Chahar Lang
have now been completed and that the troops have been withdrawn. His
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