Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎225r] (449/749)

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T*fl3 DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
*
PERSIA.
SECRET.
CSs)
Noreisber. 10, il)44.
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[E 6931/422/34]
Coiy No» 1 ‘J 4
Bullard to Mr. Eden.—(Received 10th November.)
(No. 419.)
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. 41 for period the 23rd October to
the 29th October, 1944, compiled by the military attache to this legation.
Tehran, 3(PA October, 1944.
Enclosure.
(Secret.)
Military Attache’s Intelligence Summary No. 41 for the Period 23nf October
to the 2S)th October, 1944.
Political.
Persian Affairs.
1. The Eussians have continued their campaign of would-be intimidation
of the Persian Government and Majlis. The journalists of Tehran, with a few
exceptions, were invited to the Soviet Embassy and there entertained by
M. Kavtaradzeh with an exposition of the altruistic motives that had induced
the Soviet Government to offer to exploit Persia’s oil and of the advantages—
in no case precisely defined—that would accrue to Persia; with veiled threats;
and with an attack on the head of their Government with whom, M. Kavtaradzeh
said, the Soviet authorities could have no further relations, although they still
cherished the same warm feelings towards the Persian people whom M. Sa’ed
was attempting to mislead. The newspapers, supported by the Eussians, have
increased the violence of their attacks on the Prime Minister, accusing him of
deliberately trying to embroil Persia with Eussia. They remind their readers
that those who opposed the Soviet are to-day being destroyed by the guns of
the Eed army; that Eussia will have much to do with the settlement at the
Peace Conference of the conditions of the post-war world. Quite inconsistently
with their expressions of regard for the welfare of the Persian people the Soviet
authorities have stopped the transport by rail of all grain to the capital from
the over-stocked granaries of the north. What was perhaps meant to be a master
stroke of the offensive was the organisation of a demonstration outside the Majlis
building by a crowd of some 4,000 to 5,000 workers and others, calling death to
the Prime Minister. The demonstrators, some, at least, of whom are known to
have been collected in Soviet lorries from their homes with the promise of reward,
were quite openly shepherded and protected by Eussian troops, well armed.
2. The results of this campaign are not what the Eussians expected. It
has. indeed, made the Eussians look rather ridiculous in Persian eyes. It has
rallied increasing support, even of former critics, to the Prime Minister. The
crudity of the methods used, the offence to all recognised international conven
tions in Kavtaradzeh’s public attempt to browbeat the press into attacking the
Prime Minister have hardened public opinion against Eussia and aroused some
thing of those latent qualities of passive resistance that forced Nasiruddin Shah
to cancel the concession given to Tobacco Eegie. Newspapers not accepting
Eussian money have come out with some almost defiant articles; and the skv
has not fallen. Persians who considered that the greatest danger from the
Eussians lay in their insidious propaganda and their appeal to the lower classes
T59—871