Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎324r] (647/749)

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for the next elections, with a view to displacing the sitting member, Tussi, who
is regarded as “ reactionary.”
11. Ihe emigration referred to in paragraph 9 of Intelligence Summary
No. 31 appears to be continuing, and some fifty persons are said to have crossed
the Soviet frontier already. Applications are received daily and are sent to the
Soviet Embassy in Tehran.
12. Ali Mansur, the Governor-General, has returned to his post. While in
* ^[Tehran he suggested to the General Staff the removal of Colonel Vossuq, the
General Officer Commanding, Khorasan Division, as he was not popular with the
Russians. The Russian Military Attache also spoke to the Chief of the General
Staff on this subject and, when asked for his reasons for their request replied that
Colonel Vossuq did not collaborate with the Russian Commander. The Chief of
the General Staff says that he replied that such vague indictments could not be
followed up and requested the Russian Military Attache to specify Colonel
Vossuq’s acts of non-co-operation.
A zerbaijan.
13. The commission of enquiry headed by General Jehanbani has arrived at
Rezaieh. The situation is still grave. No further news is to hand from Maragheh,
where a band of Tudeh toughs occupied Government offices and gave the officials
five days in which to clear out. The Russians have not yet permitted any
reinforcements to be sent. There is a garrison of one company in Maragheh and
the Chief of the General Staff is anxious as to its fate.
14. The emigration to the U.S.S.R. continues and as many as seventy
applications per day are being received, mostly from the minorities, Armenians,
Assyrians, &c., and from those comparatively recent emigrants from the U.S.S.R.
known as “ Muhajirs.”
15. Russian methods are well illustrated by a report from Astara—a report
which, owing to Russian “ censorship ” methods, took twenty-three days to reach
the capital. A Russian officer accompanied by a soldier entered the house of the
Bakshdar of Astara and shot him dead.
Kurdistan.
16. The Chief of the General Staff states that a minor Kurdish chief and
about 100 of his followers have surrendered to the more northerly of the Persian
army columns near Merivan. The villages of Rezab and Karabad were occupied
on the 12th August. A consular source reports that a Colonel Airom has been
appointed military governor of Senneh town and that this new appointment does
not meet with the aproval of the Governor, Shahub-ud-Douleh, who sees himself
being pushed further into the background. While most observers agree that
Brigadier Hushmand Afshar is a gallant officer and capable commander, they
aver that his harshness, his rapacity and his blind hatred of all things Kurdish
• are sowing the seeds of further trouble in that area,
Isfahan (see Intelligence Summary No. 15, paragraph 11).
17. The Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem has recently visited Isfahan.
He admitted in conversation with His Majesty’s Ambassador that propaganda
for the return of Armenians to the U.S.S.R, has undoubtedly been spread. He
says that he pointed out to the Isfahan Armenians that Soviet Armenia was a
highly developed and full country, and that there would not be jobs or openings
for an unlimited number of immigrants. Persia, on the other hand, was
undeveloped and under-populated and presented a better field for Armenian
enterprise.
British Interests.
18. Mr. D. W. Lascelles, counsellor of embassy, has left Tehran on transfer
to Athens.