Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎357v] (714/749)

The note concludes by saying that if the Russians continue to prevent the
despatch of Persian military, gendarmerie or police to areas where they desire
to restore law and order, the Persian Government must hold the Russians
responsible for any disorders which occur. The substance of this note was given
by the Persian Ambassadors in London and Washington to the Foreign Office
and State Department respectively, and the Persian Ambassador in Washington,
in addition, gave a summary of it to the American press. The Persian Govern- _
ment have now telegraphed*to their ambassador in London to make the contents
of the above note available to the British press.
4. At the same time as the above note was presented to the Soviet Embassy
the Chief of the General Staff asked the Soviet Military Attache to notify the
Soviet military authorities in Qazvin and procure their consent to the despatch
of two infantry battalions and a gendarmerie battalion to Mianeh and Tabriz.
As no reply was received either to the note or to this request by the General Staff,
the latter decided to despatch the force. It left in lorries on the 19th November
and the advanced guard reached a point about 40 kilom. from Qazvin, when it
was stopped by a Russian staff officer, who said that, if the column went on, it
would be fired* at. The officer commanding advanced guard replied that he had
received orders to advance even if fired upon and continued to advance. When
the advanced guard reached the orchards on the outskirts of Qazvin town
it was stopped by one Russian battalion in position across the road with four
tanks and two armoured cars. The main body on receiving this information
halted at Sharifabad, 7 miles short of Qazvin and about 85 miles from Tehran,
and a rear party, halted by Russian troops at Kerej, some 21 miles west of I eh ran,
was allowed, after two days, to join the main body and to take its tents and
rations of which it had been deprived during two days of incessant ram. 1 he
advanced guard subsequently retired to Sharifabad, where the column still
remains. The Russians have allowed four of its lorries to make one trip daily to
Qazvin to obtain fresh supplies and bread. ,
5. Regarding Russian movements in and around Tehran the Lhiet ot the
General Staff informed the British Military Attache that
(i) Arrivals and departures of Russian troops at and from Tehran by rail
during the past twelve days had resulted in an overall increase of some
300. They all carried arms and in some cases carried wooden arms
chests and bundles done up in cloth of about 1 metre in length. 1 hese
arms have been seen in transit to various Russian military hirings in
Tehran, to their military headquarters (still in existence despite their
official evacuation of Tehran) and even to the Soviet Embassy.
(ii) Persian railway workers belonging to the Tudeh had been armed by the
Russians at stations between Semnan and Garmsar (some 40 miles east
of Tehran). . „ , , t *
(iii) That the Tehran garrison, after the arrival of a battalion trom islahan
V and one from Ahwaz, now consisted of twenty battalions.
(iv) In his opinion the increases in the Russian garrisons at Semnan and
Keren the recent infiltration of Russian troops into Tehran, the
bringing in of large quantities of rifles into Tehran by the Russians
all pointed to an impending occupation of the capital by Russian
troops to coincide with a rising of the local Tudeh and similar risings
by the Democrat rebels in Azerbaijan. (The British Military Attache
informed the Chief of the General Staff that he did not share this view
and that the Russians could obtain their immediate objects without
doing so, these objects being to establish a provincial council m
Azerbaijan which would bring about autonomy and give them an oil
concession.)
The Press.
6 . An interesting article signed by eighty “intellectuals has appealed
in the paper Bakhtar of the 2nd November. It states that Persia has been
occupied by Allied troops for four years and three months, its economic lire has
been upset, its currency has been inflated, Allies have interfered with its adminis
tration and intervened in its elections, it has not been paid the cost of the military
Aid-to-Russia freight carried over its railway, disaffected elements have been
encouraged and assisted by the Allies and the despatch of food-stuffs has been
prevented. The article contrasts the promises and achievements of the British
and Russians in the matter of evacuation and finally asks that British, American
and French parliamentary delegations be sent to Azerbaijan to see for themselves
whether the present separatist movement is a genuine one or inspired by foreigners.