Coll 28/97(1) ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries.’ [‎62r] (123/807)

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(iii) The decision to withdraw the bulk of the Ahwaz brigade and to leave a
force of 600 men to contain the enemy in the Mungasht area has been
cancelled.
(iv) Ibe Bahmai leader has organised a mobile striking force of 400 riflemen.
This force is said to have received reinforcements of fifty men each
from the Mombay and Chaharlang Bakhtiari. It is intended to use
this force to carry out replenishing raids on caravans and vulnerable
villages. One such raid was recently made on a sugar and tea caravan
near Mamatain, which is situated about 20 miles south-east of Haft
Khel oil-field.
10. Civil Aviation.
(i) The Bagdad paper Al Alam-ul-Arabi, in announcing the inauguration
of the Tehran-Kermanshah air mail service, stated (correctly) that the machines
were British and (incorrectly) that they were flown by “ experienced British
pilots.”
A dementi appeared in the Iranian press stating that both machines and
pilots were “ exclusively Iranian.”
(ii) The Kermanshah Aerodrome. —A Kermanshah consular report states
that work on the local military aerodrome has been actively carried on and
considerable quantities of stone for the landing ground’s foundations have been
laid during the past two months. A steam-roller (lent by the Kermanshah
Petroleum Company) has done invaluable service in the laying of the above-
mentioned foundations and more than half of the area to be metalled has been
dealt with. Ihe aerodrome, used hitherto only rarely by occasional machines, has
during the past month been the scene of an unwonted activity owing to the
arrival and departure, on Tuesday, every week, of the aeroplane conveying air
mails between Tehran and Kermanshah and vice versa. Although the airmail
is very little patronised by the public as yet, it seems pretty certain that the new
service will continue to function and rumours of the forthcoming extension of the
air-mail service to Bagdad are very common here, though no official confirmation
on this point has been received.
11 . Iranian Army.
(i) Conscription.- —A decree has been published summoning in the next
Iranian year (1317) for their 1 st Reserve training those born in 1284 and called
up for military training in 1304. Owing to the difficulty experienced in training
conscripts with the limited number of instructors available, the Ministry of War
has, since the inception of compulsory military service in 1304, concentrated on
this and has not felt itself equal to coping with reservist training in addition.
The liability for military service of an Iranian subject is twenty-five years
commencing in his twenty-first year. This period is divided as follows : —
(a) Two years with the colours.
{b) Four years with the 1st Reserve (“ Ihtiyat ”) in the last of which he under
goes one month’s training.
(c) Thirteen years with the 2 nd Reserve (“ Zakhireh-i-Muqaddam ”) during
which he undergoes one month every two years.
(d) Six years with the 3rd Reserve (“ Zakhireh-i-Tali ”) during which he
undergoes one month every three years.
As the reservist training for which reservists are now being called up is their
first (in this particular case the training which should have been carried out in
1310) it will be realised what a lot of leeway the Ministry of War has to make
up, and it may well happen that no effort will be made to carry out the 2 nd and
3rd Reserve periods of training for many years to come.
(ii) Following on the regrouping of' the civil divisions of the country, a
rumour is reported from Kermanshah to the effect that that town is to become the
headquarters of the 5th <c Astan.” A natural corollary is the rumour that the
Kermanshah brigade is to be increased to a division.
TMs is not very probable as Kermanshah lies too far south to dominate
Kurdish tribal areas (as ^enneh does) and too far north to command Luristan (as
Burujird does). x