Coll 28/97(1) ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries.’ [‎259v] (518/807)

4
P) Not printed.
was recalled to Germany because of complaints made by the Imperial Government
of his photographic activities. As a matter of fact, however, the telegram
ordering him to Berlin was received some time before the Iranian complaint was
even prepared.
(ii) Reference Intelligence Summary No. 19 (current), paragraph 4 (iv). It
is said Dr. Smend is accused of embezzlement of the German Legation lunds for
36,000 reichsmarks. Dr. Grobba is reported to have been a high-ranking
freemason.
(iii) Germans arriving from the Reich are astonished that no one here speaks
of United States intervention in the war. They state that in Germany the United
States is considered as already at war with them on the side of the Allies.
(iv) M. Waheb Zadeh, a senior partner of the important Iranian commercial
house of that name in Hamburg, has recently returned to Tehran. A brief report
of conditions in Hamburg is given as Appendix “ A ’(’) to this summary.
(8) Italian Interests.
Signor Alfonso Balocca, a prominent Italian contractor, has recently died
in Tehran. M. Balocca was responsible for the construction of several silos, as
well as part of the Trans-Iranian Railway.
(9) Iraqi Interests.
Reference Intelligence Summary No. 17 (current), paragraph 9. Colonel
Hamid, the Iraqi representative on the joint frontier commission, returned to
Bagdad on the 27th September.
The Imperial Government have agreed in writing that in cases of dispute
about the frontier alignment which cannot be settled by the frontier commission
themselves, appeal shall be made to a neutral arbitrator, who will be most
probably a Turk.
(10) United States Interests.
Negotiations for the purchase of 128,000 tons of steel rails are still being
carried on.
(n) Census.
A recent census carried out at Tabriz and environs up to a radius of
6 kilom. on the 27th September has resulted as follows : —
Total population 213,542, of which 109,629 are male and 103,913 female.
(12) Seismic Disturbance.
At 23-10 hours on the 25th September a more than usually severe earth
tremor was felt in the Tehran region.
(13) Press.
(i) On the 21st September the Iran and Ittilaat published articles expressing
the profound sympathy of Iran with Egypt in the present situation. On this
occasion, however, no accusations were made against His Majesty’s Government.
(ii) Reference Intelligence Summary No. 19 (current), paragraph 12. No
more has been written in the Iranian press on the subject of articles on Iran in
the Swedish or American press, but the journalists of Tehran have not been slow
to discover further cause of complaint in the newspapers of other foreign
countries. On the 25th September a further article appeared in the Ittilaat.
This time it was the turn of Switzerland, whose journalists were accused in
forcible terms of being in the pay of belligerent Powers and of having published
attacks on Iran and other neutral countries. The Swiss representative has on
enquiry been referred to two articles published in the Neue Zuricher Zeitung, and
he learns from his Government that one contained a friendly account by a Swiss
correspondent of his recent journey in North Iran, while the other was a
translation of an article on Field-Marshal Ironside by Mr. Harold Nicolson
published in the July number of Foreign Affairs, from which a passing and
unflattering reference to the present Shah had been omitted.