Coll 28/97(1) ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries.’ [‎328v] (656/807)

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7. His Majesty’s Consul-General at Meshed reports improvement in the
local situation. Gendarmerie posts are being re-established.
8 . His Majesty’s Consul at Tabriz also reports a slight improvement. The
rearming of police and gendarmerie has begun. ^
9. In Kurdistan the situation has not greatly changed except that there has
been less aggressiveness on the part of the Kurds. Abbas Kalhur, Amir-i-
Makhsus, formerly recognised as chief of the Kalhur (Personalities, Foreign
Office, Military Attache’s, No. 139), who has spent recent years in prison in
Tehran and who has some influence with Kurdish tribes other than his own, has
been sent to assist General Shahhakhti (see Summary of Intelligence No. 22 ,
paragraph 17) in his negotiations with the Kurds. These negotiations will
probably take the traditional Persian form of sowing dissensions among the tribes
and of promising blessings to some to induce them to take the side of Government
against others.
10. In the Kermanshah area, in Luristan and the adjacent districts,
although there is no serious tribal movement, there is much brigandage. Rather
serious bread riots occurred in the town of Kermanshah on the morning of the
27th October.
Civil Appointments.
11 . Chief of Finance Department, Azerbaijan : Furuzan (formerly chief,
Tehran Municipality).
Governor of Khorramshahr : Hasan Matin (formerly Governor of Qum).
Deputy Governor of ( 6 th Ustandari) : Nasrullah Vasig Kija.
Chief of Police, Resht: Colonel Bihzad.
Chief of Police, Isfahan : Colonel Mukhtari (not the previous chief of
Tehran Police).
Chief of Police, Tabriz : Sarhang Saif.
Persian Consul in Bombay : Abulqhassem Panahi.
Persian Army.
12. The Cabinet has referred the drait of the treaty to a War Office
Committee consisting of :—
The Minister for War : General Ahmed Nakchevan (Personality,
F.O. 144/M.A. 193).
The Chief of the General Staff : General Yazdan Panah (Personality,
F.O. 212 /M.A. 301).
Head of the First Bureau : Brigadier Seifullah Shihab (see Intelligence
Summary No. 23, paragraph 41).
Head of the Second Bureau : Brigadier Riazi (see Intelligence Summary
No. 22 , paragraph 17).
Commander of the Gendarmerie : General Zahidi.
The reactions of this committee, as reported by General Shihab in a visit
to His Majesty’s Minister, ostensibly private but very probably inspired by the
Shah, are that Persia is being asked to submit to a great deal—'Censorship, British
control of communications, British use of Persian material, &c., and to declare
herself a belligerent against the Axis. But to them the treaty did not read as
if Persia was being treated as an ally with her part to play in the war. They
felt that the treaty should allot a more glorious role to the Persian army
associated with us. They saw no reason to limit the operations of the Persian
army to Persian soil. They could raise an army of twelve divisions if we could
provide the equipment.
His Majesty’s Minister indicated the very serious problem they had to face
in the restoration of internal security and the small progress hitherto made in
its solution. They had plenty to do for the present in reorganising an army for
that purpose. They should disabuse their minds of any idea of getting modern
armament, but the provision of equipment essential for the services required for
internal security operations, of which the Persian army is seriously deficient,
would be considered.
Comment. —It is improbable that the proposal that we should equip a Persian
expeditionary force was regarded seriously by the General Staff, who are not