Coll 28/103 ‘Persia. Perso Russian Relations’ [‎77r] (153/190)

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EXTRACT from private letter from Lord Linlithgow to lu(c 2 ,
Mr. Amery, dated 21st May 1940. 7, /t
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6. Zetland, in one of his last private letters dated the
1st May, expressed some uneasiness at the present attitude
of the Persian Government and expressed the hope that
Persia's adhscgnce" to the Saadabad Pact may act as a checv
on a drift bn Tier part into the Husso-German sphere of
influence, since if this were at all marked, it would
constitute a break in the solidarity of the Islamic
countries and would undoubtedly be regarded as something
of a diplomatic defeat for us. He asked me if we had any
information which would be of help in appreciating the
position. I have talked to my experts here. I do not in
the result think that we have any separate or corroborative
evidence, though we agree with Zetland that the position
disclosed in Tehran telegram s Nos. 102 and _11.Q of 28th April
ancT’Zhd”Iviay'Tb'The Foreign Office is disquieting, as
regards the immediate case of Russian pressure on Persia to
secure air facilities, while there is no further evidence
available to us in Persia itself, I am inclined to think
that an indication of the way things may be going is
afforded by recent Kabul reports. If you look at the
Kabul Intelligence Summary for the week ending 26th April ,
you will see that the Russians apparently always employ
(and for obvious reasons) different pilots on their
Tashkent-Kabul Service, and that they manage apparently to
flout Afghan control by arranging to clear their aeroplanes
before the Afghans can arrive on the aerodrome. This
suggests rather that they may be trying to establish some
sort of prescriptive claim to the use of the Kabul aerodrome
without submitting to supervision by Afghan ground staff ard
that without any Afghan protest they have apparently been
able to train a large number of pilots in the use of this
route. It looks rather, on such information as is available
(and I do not think that I have anything that matters her-
which is not available to you), that the Russians are
seeking to establish by pressure in Persia what they are
getting by stealth in Afghanistan.