Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎244r] (487/749)

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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
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PERSIA.
SECREK^'
With tn
[E 318/70/34]
4
January 13, 1945.
Section 1.
Copy No.
j 27
Sir R. Bullard to Mr. Edon—(R^^d 13th -January, 1945.)
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(No. 490)
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 copy of Intelligence Summary No. 49 for the period the 18th-
31st December, 1944, compiled by the military attache to this legation.
Tehran, 31s£ December, 1944.
(Secret.)
Military A ttache's
Enclosure.
Intelligence Summary No. 49 for the period the l%th-
31s£ December, 1944.
Persian Affairs.
Political.
II is reliably reported that the Soviet Ambassador has told the Persian *
Prime Minister that he had been instructed to inform him that the Soviet
Government considered that, until the law prohibiting the granting of an oil
concession to any foreign organisation was revised, good relations could not be
established between the Soviet and Persian Governments. This intimation has
dispelled the hope that Kavtaradzeh had perhaps gone further than Moscow
intended; and the consideration of means to placate the Soviet Government is
now occupying the Government’s attention to the exclusion of nearly all other
business.
2. Russian or Russian-inspired activities are being intensified among all
classes of Persians. Propaganda has been extended to the schools. Anxiety is
increasing in the middle classes, particularly among the Deputies and Cabinet
Ministers. Threats are being circulated from some source or another that in the
next demonstrations organised by the Tudeh party attempts will be made on the
lives of landowners, priests and Government officials. Prominent Tudeh leaders,
such as Iraj Iskandari, have been sent to Mazanderan, allegedly to organise
opposition to the Vatan party, which has some following there. In many places
there is labour unrest. After meetings of factory An East India Company trading post. workers convened by the leader
of the Tudeh party in Yazd, where they were incited against their employers,
the workers of the most important textile factory An East India Company trading post. went on strike. In one of the
mills in Shahi (Mazanderan) a demonstration by the workers led to rioting and
to shooting by the gendarmerie, which resulted in the wounding of some workers
and the death of a Soviet soldier who was in the vicinity. The Russian troops
thereupon disarmed the gendarmerie and, according to one fairly reliable report,
have expelled them from Shahi. A partial strike also occurred in the Tehran
munincipal power house, which was prevented from spreading by the introduction
of Persian military technicians to operate the machinery. From Meshed it is
reported that the Soviet Consul-General has taken eleven Persians to Tashkent to
attend the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the
Turkmenistan Republic. In Azarbaijan propaganda for the formation of
provincial and district councils continues.
3. The Russian-inspired Persian press continues to make hardly veiled
attacks on the imperialist nature of British policy in Europe and the east and
to stress the argument that Russian policy is directed towards ensuring that
Persia does not fall under the influence of imperialist powers. The Russians
says the Tudeh paper Rahbar, do not fear the Persian people but only those
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