Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎332v] (664/749)

I
Internal Security.
Khorasan. , ^ ,
4. A Meshed Tudeh paper has published a copy of the manrfesto posted on
the walls of Gunbad-i-Qabus by Lieut.-Colonel Niwai, the s , en “ r f fi t cel j® 1 ^
Meshed group of mutineers. It calls upon the Turcomans and others to i.e ,
overthrow the present Persian Government. fnrthmmino- '
5. The Tudeh party are making active preparations for the toithcomin 0
elections Both they and the Russians are reported to be bringing pressure to
bear on the Governor-General, Ali Mansur, to ensure that the largest possible
number of Tudeh Deputies are returned from Khorasan. . p , ,
6. Colonel Hatemi has been appointed provincial chief of police mce Colonel
Turaj Amin. The latter has been frequently reported from consular sources to )e
a tool of the Russians.
7. The General Staff has announced that, as the result of operations in
Kurdistan up to the 2nd September, 1,343 rifles have been collected. his ngure,
in the light of events and the balance of casualties m the recent operations, is
undoubtedly exaggerated, and 500 would be a better estimate. Of these, tew have
been taken from the Kurds opposing the army but from semi-settled tribes, to
whom previous commanders had issued these arms for their protection.
Azarbaijan.
8. The Chief of the General Staff informed the British Military Attache
that according to a report received from the General Officer Commanding, labuz,
a Russian consular officer and the Russian down Major of Miandoab, by name
Namazaliof, recently visited Ghazi Muhammad at Mahabad and asked him to
send a force to aid Mulla Mustafa of Barzan in his operations against the Iraqi
army Ghazi Muhammad showed the Russians a letter to the same effect which
he himself had received from Mulla Mustafa. Ghazi Muhammad is reported by
the same source as having been non-committal in his reply and to have laid down
as a necessary condition for his armed support the crying off by the Russians ot
all Tudeh activity in his area as inimical to the activities of the Kornala, m
which alone he was interested. According to the same source the Russians,
subsequently, contacted some Mangur and Herki chieftains with the same request.
The Mangur pleaded inabilitv to come to Mulla Mustafa s aid on account of then
fear of retaliation by the Pushtdar tribe, with whom they were on bad terms.
The Herki also showed little enthusiasm for this venture, as they feared punitive
action by the Iraqi Government on that portion of their tribe residing within
Iraqi territory and made the condition that they should be joined by the Debukri
Kurds.
9. According to a consular report unconfirmed by the General Staff, the
Persian army detachment at Maraghah has been disarmed by the Russian garrison
there and is now allowed to leave its barracks (see paragraph 7 of last Intelligence
Summary).
10. ^ A consular source reports that, following a skirmish between Zero
Agha’s men and the gendarmerie near Balanej bridge near Rezaieh, in which
two gendarmes were killed, a force of seventy gendarmes was despatched from
Rezaieh to attack the Kurds. The Russians stopped this force and disarmed it,
sending back the arms to the Officer Commanding, Persian garrison at Rezaieh.
The Russians claimed that they had acted in good faith, having mistaken the
gendarmes for bandits.
11. No visible result has come from the visit to Tabriz of the recent military
commission under General Jahanbani. There are no signs of a Russian with
drawal from Tabriz, where they are, in fact, acquiring additional houses, possibly
to accommodate troops to be withdrawn from Tehran. A general tightening up
of check post control has also been noticed.
Bakhtiari and Luristan.
12. After three years of continued pressure by His Majesty’s Embassy the
Persian Government announce that they have effected the arrest of Haidar s/o
Baqir, Barani s/o Ali and Seyyid Murad s/o Shah Murad all of Feraidan in
Bakhtiari who were responsible for the murder in 1942 of Mr. Harris, British
Vice-Consul at Isfahan, and of Dr. Griffiths of the Church Missionary Society,
and of his small son, and, subsequently, fled to the mountains between Bakhtiari