Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎347v] (694/749)

employment after completion of their studies offer as good a target for Tudeh
propaganda as peasants and workers hitherto approached with offers of agrarian
and industrial reforms.
British Interests.
9. The telecommunications agreement referred to in last Intelligence
Summary, paragraph 15, provides for the payment of £300,000 as follows : 25 per^
cent, against signature, 25 per cent, within three months of signature and 50 per
cent, within two months of the beginning of the next financial year (22nd March,
1946). Under this agreement the British military authorities undertake to
supply line maintenance equipment and vehicles to a value of £30,000 for which
separate payment will be made.
10. The six newspaper editors referred to in paragraph 12 of last Intelli
gence Summary have left Tehran for the United Kingdom.
American Interests.
11. The American Ambassador has addressed a note to the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs regarding the American financial advisers. The note states that
they are not in a position to do any good and that this is injurious to the prestige
of the American Government. As individuals scattered among various depart
ments they are powerless to achieve anything, but concentrated as a mission under
a chief they could make their presence felt. The Persian Government, while pre
pared to recognise one of their number as spokesman or chief, for the purposes of
internal administration of the advisers’ affairs, see in this request a veiled attempt
to secure executive powers comparable to those previously wielded by Dr. Mills-
paugh. Such powers they would under no circumstances grant to any individual
adviser. No settlement has been reached as yet and there has been some talk in
the press of the advisers resigning unless the situation is clarified.
12. Agreement has been reached on the sale of American railway assets.
The Persian Government has paid 8 million dollars, and is to pay a further
2,100,000 dollars and is to receive 68 locomotives, 1,350 wagons, including 277 oil
tank wagons, and 500,000 dollars’ worth of railway stores still in American
possession.
Russian Interests.
13. A consular source reports that a party of five Russian officers recently
visited the town of Neh between Birjand and Zahidan. They were engaged in
some sort of survey.
14. A protocol to the 1935 agreement between the U.S.S.R. and Persia
relating to co-operation in combating agricultural pests has been signed in
Tehran.
15. The Soviet Consul-General at Meshed has arrived in Tehran. The
probable reason for his visit is to ensure that, in the event of Ali Mansur not
returning to Meshed, a sufficiently subservient Governor-General may be
appointed.
16. His Excellency the Soviet Ambassador has again left for Moscow, again
without informing his colleagues. Before his departure he gave some vague
reassurances to the Minister for Foreign Affairs concerning evacuation, and
blandly said that the question of Persian troop movements in the Russian zone
was of minor importance in the light of “ Soviet general policy,” by which he
meant presumably evacuation by the expiry of the treaty period.
17. For some weeks there have been reports of an intention on the part of
the Persian Government to send a good-will diplomatic mission to Moscow to
improve the present strained relations between the two countries. The name of
Ali Mansur, Governor-General of Khorasan, was mentioned as a possible leader
of the mission. It was hoped that advice from various quarters might have led
the Persian Government to abandon a plan which seemed unnecessary and possibly
dangerous. It is now learnt, however, that the Persian Ambassador in Moscow,
acting on instructions from his Government, did actually make the suggestion to
the Soviet Government. Their reply was briefly to the effect that relations
between the two countries could easily and instantly be improved by the Persians
by reopening the question of the northern oil concession.
Tehran, \\th October, 1945.