Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎248r] (495/749)

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. 2 for the period the 8th-
14th January, 1945, compiled by the military attache to this legation,
Tehran, \bth January, 1945.
Enclosure.
Military Attache's Intelligence Summary No. 2 for the 'period the
Qth-lMh January, 1945.
(Secret.)
Political.
Persian Affairs.
THE Bill to deprive Dr. Millspaugh of his economic powers has, after much
heated discussion, been passed by the Majlis by 69 votes against 6, with
20 abstentions. The Government has been charged with responsibility for the
control of the economic organisations set up by Dr. Millspaugh. Within a month
the Government must decide which of these should be abolished and whether those
remaining should be distributed among existing ministries or transferred to a
new Ministry of Economic Affairs. Within three months the Government must
present to the Majlis a report on the accounts and activities of all the economic
organisations controlled by Dr. Millspaugh; and must further, within the shortest
possible period, set up a Supreme Economic Council to advise the Government in
the preparation of a scientific plan to suit the country’s economic requirements.
Particular attention is to be paid to preventing the transfer abroad of capital
and to increasing exports. Some now fear, and some hope, that Dr. Millspaugh s
control of the finances, which he retains, will allow him to continue to exercise
some control over economic measures. Agitation for his dismissal continues in
the Tudeh press, among aspirants to Russian favour and among the wealthy, who
would suffer from his income tax law. Dr. Musaddiq, perhaps in the hope of
placating the Russians, prepared a Bill for Millspaugh's dismissal, but he has
not yet been able to obtain enough signatures to qualify it for presentation to the
Majlis. It is understood that Dr. Black, at present head of the Cereals and
Bread Section, may be asked to take temporary charge of the economic organisa
tions previously controlled by Dr. Millspaugh.
2. Anxious speculation continues as to what the next move of the Russians
through the agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. of the Tudeh party will be. Tehran is full of rumours of a
large influx of Caucasians and of Persians who had fled to Russia in Reza Shah s
reign, brought into Persia as Russian troops and then turned loose in civilian
clothes, but armed, to occupy the many houses the Russians are alleged to have
hired in various quarters of the town. There is considerable anxiety with a
corresponding desire either to seek Russian favour or to ask what British support
will be forthcoming.
3. In Azerbaijan there is a lull in Tudeh and Russian activities, although
some mild agitation for the formation of provincial and district councils
continues. A Tudeh meeting organised to protest against Seyyid Zia’s manifesto,
to which reference was made in Summary No. 49/44, paragraph 5, was attended
by only about 100 people.
[62—28]
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