'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎263v] (531/610)

480
Rnsso-Persian
Treaty,
February 1921,
difficult and dangerous with the Bolsheviks in occupation of
Gilan and uncertainty about British policy, at a time when
the British Forces appeared to constitute the only obstacle
to a Bolshevik advance on Tehran, where Bolshevik agents
were already active. Provocation of the Bolsheviks was
impolitic and a non-committal attitude in such a situation
was in keeping with Persian Cabinet traditions ; members of
the Majlis were urged to come to Tehran to form a quorum,
but they too were reluctant to assemble and be faced with the
awkward necessity of coming to a decision.
The only step of importance taken by Sipahdar was the
conclusion in 1 February of a Treaty with the Soviet Govern
ment of Russia, negotiated through the agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. of Mushavir-ul-
Mamalik. Mushavir had been Minister of Foreign Affairs in
1.918 and was sent to Paris to represent Persia at the Peace
Conference. (See pages 62 and 362.) In 1920 he was ap
pointed Persian Ambassador at Constantinople and from
there went on a special mission to Moscow.
The principal provisions of the Treaty were :—
Soviet renunciation of the old Tsarist policy of force towards
Persia tending to the diminution of the rights of the Persian
people, and guarantee of non-intervention by the Soviet in
the internal concerns of Persia; denunciation of all imperialistic
treaties affecting Persia concluded by the Tsarist Government
with 2 foreign powers ; wilting off of the Russian 3 loans to Persia
and renunciation of any claim on the Persian revenues by
which these loans were guaranteed ; session of Tsarist under
takings giving control over roads and railways in Persia and
restoration of all such means of communication to the pos
session of the Persian Government, on the understanding
that Persia will not concede them to any other foreign power
or its citizens ; the Russian roads from Enzali to Kazvin, Kazvin
to Hamadan, and Kazvin to Tehran, the Julfa-Tabriz and
Sofian-Urumieh railways, the Urumieh steamers, docks, etc.,
the Port of Enzali, the Russian Bank with all its assets (includ
ing 4 buildings, etc.) and liabilities to be surrendered to Persia
1 The treaty was eventually passed by the Majlis, with some minor modi
fications, in December, after a Russian protest against the delay in its ratification.
2 The 1907 Convention is indicated.
s On the ground that they had been designed to promote not the economic
prosperity and development of Persia, but her political enfetterment.
* A proviso was added that if a Russian Consul were appointed to a town
where Russian Bank buildings existed, one of them should be allotted ^by the
Persian Government for his accommodation.
3 accordance
iKsiomgr
Meyhac
f tie Treaty