Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎222v] (444/749)

2
Economic.
3. Certain changes have lately been made in the Cereals and Bread Regula
tions, of which the effect is to—
(a) Give higher exemptions to the smaller landlords.
(b) Exempt the peasants completely.
(c) Remove all restrictions on the transport of grain.
These modifications have been made partly because of political pressure, but
they can be justified by the improvement in the general situation as regards
cereals, which may be summarised as—■
(i) The possession by the Government of considerable reserves of grain.
(ii) The decreasing tendency to hoard resulting from favourable war news.
(iii) The recent falls in the price of grain on the free market.
It is expected that the result of permitting the free transport of grain,
combined with the fall in prices due to the unloading of hoarded stocks, will be
to increase the supply of grain on the free markets in towns, thus lightening the
Government’s task of collection and distribution. The Government hopes to be
able to control the price on the free market by issues from the stocks obtained
i from the collection of landlords’ surpluses. If present trends continue the
! Government hopes to hold at the end of the current harvest year stocks of
150,000 tons of grain.
4. Colonel Mahmud Khosrovani of the Persian air force has been selected
as an additional representative of the Persian Government at the International
Air Conference to be held in America in November (see Summary No. 38/44,
. paragraph 8 ). Colonel Khosrovani has already been in America purchasing
aircraft and made profits from that transaction which were considered to be
. scandalous even in Persia.
5. The Red Lion and Sun (the Persian Red Cross) Society announces that
it has received subscriptions of 600,000 rials for the relief of the inhabitants of
Baneh who have suffered from the maladministration of Hama Rashid. Of this
amount, the sum of 400,000 rials is said to have been subscribed by officers of
the army.
Persian Forces.
A rmy.
6 . The debate on the Bill for the grant of an additional credit of 15 million
tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. to the army especially for the purpose of increasing the pay of officers
has shown little opposition to the Bill in principle, nor has it evoked much
criticism of the army. Of several amendments proposed, all were rejected except
that for the formation of a special court of two military officers and three judges
to investigate the misappropriation of army funds* and certain offences "of
dereliction of duty alleged to have occurred at the time of the entry of Allied
troops into Persia in 1941. The debate is not yet finished. A Tudeh Deputy
took strong exception to a recent order by the' Ministry for War forbidding
officers to join political parties or to take part in politics.
7. During a debate in the Majlis certain remarks made by the Acting
Minister for War concerning the army’s special relation to the Shah evoked an
emotional protest from the Deputy, Dr. Musaddiq, who, while asserting that he
was more devoted to the Shah than anyone else in the Majlis, felt bound to
maintain that, since the Shah carried no responsibility, he had no right to
interfere in the affairs of any department of Government.
Internal Security.
8 . It has been decided in principle to apply the Military Government Law
to offences committed on the railway and on certain roads with a view to speeding
up the trial of offences against Allied property and legalising the imposition of
more severe sentences.
Kurdistan.
9. The following information has been given by the Persian General
Staff :—
Hama Rashid has taken refuge in Iraq and from there he has made several
incursions into Persian territory which have resulted in clashes with Persian
columns and casualties to both sides, including one of Hama Rashid’s brothers.
The Persian forces are, however, in effective occupation of the Baneh and