Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎236v] (472/749)

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brake on the government of the country and as a saboteur of every measure of
reform? Dr. Musaddiq may have argued thus and seized this moment to record
in statute form the opinion of the Majlis.
5. A new governorate of Jahrum in Ears has been formed. It will include
the districts of Semkan, Khafar, Kurdijan and Kuhak.
A 'ppointments — Civil.
6. Ahmad Divsalar to be acting Governor of Ustan No. 1 (Gilan) vice Nadir
Arasteh appointed Minister of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones.
Economic.
7. A clause will be inserted in all contracts for labour for the British
military authorities whereby the contractor is bound, on the termination of his
contract, to transport to their homes any workmen imported from their homes to
the place of his contract.
Internal Security.
Ears.
8. The Governor-General, for some time past, had been toying with the idea
of procuring Nasir Khan Qashgai’s election to the vacant Majlis seat of Lar.
His objects, he said, were to induce a more stable frame of mind in Nasir and,
during his necessarily long absences in Tehran, to allow the influence of the more
sensible and tractable Muhammed Hussein Qashgai gradually to oust that of
Nasir. As regards the first of Firuz’s objects, it is doubtful whether a sense of
his parliamentary responsibilities would effect any lasting change in Nasir’s
unstable mentality. The second object seems equally difficult to achieve since
Nasir would not be compelled to spend the greater part of his time in Tehran.
A Shiraz Deputy, Muaddil, for instance, has not, to date, registered a single
attendance in the Majlis since his election. Nasir Khan’s own objects are not
difficult to guess. He wants additional representation for his tribe in the Majlis
and, should a future government decide to bring him to book for his past
misdeeds, he wants parliamentarry immunity. However, Nasir’s schemes have,
for the moment, gone agley as Firuz has had instructions from Tehran not to
proceed with the election for the vacant seat, the Persian Government not being
willing by such action in the South, to provoke similar demands from the North
to fill those seats rendered vacant by the rejection of the credentials of the Russian
sponsored Tudeh Deputies.
9. Reference Summary No. 44/44, paragraph 17, the Russian who
contacted Nasir Khan was not the Soviet Assistant Military Attache but another
Russian who had visited Shiraz some ten days previously, though the Soviet
Military Attache did evince considerable interest in tribal affairs and attempted
to procure from the Governor, his host, a list of the tribes As to the truth of the
Russian offer of arms, ammunition and money there is only Nasir Khan’s state
ment made to the Governor and to His Majesty’s Consul/ He might well have
been trying to increase his own importance or even have been fool enough to think
that British fear of such extension of Russian influence in the South might
evoke a similar offer from the British.
10. Better security on the roads round Shiraz is reported as the result of a
tail-twisting administered by the Governor to Colonel Khosrowdad, the Chief of
Gendarmerie of Pars.
Mamassani.
11- Hussein Quli Rustam of the Mamassani has made overtures to His
Majesty’s Consul at Shiraz and has expressed his desire for guidance. If this
chieftain, as was reported, is to act as mediator in the dispute between the two
Zarghampur cousins, Abdullah and Khosro, this should make for a peaceful
outcome.
Khuzistan.
♦
12. The military operations to disarm the Arab tribes have been hampered
by rain and the flight of a large number of the Beni Turuf across the border into
Iraq. General Homayuni asked His Majesty’s Consul at Ahwmz to intervene with
the Iraqi authorities and induce them to disarm or expel the fugitives. He was
informed that this was not a matter in which His Majesty’s Consul could properly
interfere and that it should be dealt with through diplomatic channels between
the Governments of Persia and Iraq.