Coll 28/103 ‘Persia. Perso Russian Relations’ [‎51r] (101/190)

Copy.
(B 2569/94/54)
of th#
Under 9 e&rv 5 'i?nry ®f
With tho Cemniimi
for Foreign Affat
' - (667/1/44)
17th April, 1944,
Bear Baxter
The British members of the tripartite censorship
in Tehran have noticed that the Soviet Section have been
much more strict in the matter of printed matter arriving
from the United Kingdom for private persons during the
last two months or so. The Soviet censors do not claim
the right to censor matter addressed to ublic Relations
Bureau or the British Council, but they censor with the
most minute care anything addressed to private persons or
booksellers even though the packets are"often addressed
c/o British Council.
I enclose a list of publications from the
United Kingdom which have been stopped. It begins with
a very good book on modern Persia by Mr. Blwell button,
who is on the staff of the Public Relations Bureau, and
ends with the issue of "Punch” February 9th, 1944. The
Munch’’ is presumably comdemned for the amusing cartoon
about the sixteen "autonomous" republics and for a very
entertaining skit on the same subject by "Throe".
Meanwhile quantities of Soviet propaganda come
in, but it is all consigned to the Soviet Embassy and
moreover it is all "official" and therefore claimed as
being immune from censorship. I should be surprised if
it could be established that among all this Soviet
propaganda there was nothing more critical of us than Bernard
Partridge’s cartoon is critical of Soviet Russia. We are
in iket arranging to have a look at some of the Soviet
propaganda, and if we find anything unfair to us the fact
that it is official will not prevent our asking for its
elimination.
It looks as though the Soviet aim was to make
Persia an extension of Soviet Russia in the matter of
< propaganda. I have not yet thought out what course of
action to recommend, but I wanted you to know as soon as
possible of the new Russian policy which, while keeping
the Russian point of view before the Persian public, will
effectually prevent the presentation of the slightest
criticism, however fair, of the Soviet Union. It is
relevant that a new press named "Farhang" and believed to
belong to the Tudeh Party has begun to publish pamphlets
containing the kind of thing one finds in Russian books -
Russia, the workers’ paradise, whereas in RngLahd the
unemployed get nothing but a bowl of soup to live on -
and that after waiting for hours in a queue, while, "Lady
Harriet Scott" has opened a restaurant for dogs.
I am sending a copy of this letter to Caroe at
New Belhi, to Croft in Cairo and to Balfour in Moscow.
\
(Sgd).
Yours ever,
d). J. S. Somers Cocks.
(For H.M. Ambassador).
• t
Foreign Office.