Coll 28/120 ‘Persia. Ahwaz – Consular diaries.’ [‎137r] (274/669)

(13) The gendarmeries in U*tan VI are now in charge of
Colonel Ishqi. Colonel I*hqi wa<? formerly in command of the
Khuzijstan gendarmerie; hi?? record offers little hope that he
will be abler or more willing than hi* predeces^or.cyix&mta
Colonel Ishqi reports that the whole of
Railway Gendarmerie al^o has been placed under his command,
(14) Tension over religious questions appears to be
growing though there is no indication that this has any connec
tion with the propaganda reported in para 10 of the last diary.
On 7th October sheikh Jaffar Ansari, perhaps the leading Mujtahid
of Ahwaz, reported that iiohd Ali Imam, president of the Hezb- i-
/sent Azadigan, had/xsKH him by the hand of a member of the Hezb a copy
of a pamphlet attacking Islam; the youth was slightly man-handled
by the disciples of the Mujtahed who claimed that his interven
tion had prevented the boy receiving serious injury. (The
pamphlet which, though appearing over Imam f s signature, is popu
larly attributed to sayyed Ahmed Kasravi, has a strongly reformist’
flavour and an element of xenophobia.)
(15) On the evening of 9th October the wife of a sergeant
of gendarmerie rushed out into a crowded street and began to
scream that her young daughter had been kidnapped by the Jews
for ceremonial sacrifice. A crowd of seven or eight hundred
collected and went off to burn the synagogue. They were prevented
from so doing by the Commissioner of Police who drove off the
mob by firing his pistol into the air. He later' produced the
woman along with a girl alleged to be her kidnapped daughter
and persuaded the mob to disperse. The mob in then reported to
have made an abortive attempt to attack the house of Imam. The
reason for the latter incident is not clear, though the mob
is alleged to have been &gged on by a woman who was the mooher
of boy manhandled by the supporters of the mujtahid.
(16) A quarrel is reported between the Director of the
Municipality and the Governor-General largely over the question
of the repair of the road joining the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co,
centre at Khazalieh and Ahwaz town. The road was constructed by
the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. some four years age and taken over on
completion by the Ministry of Road since when no maintenance has
been done and the road has become the worst in Kiiuzistan. The
Governor-General had apparently made it a point of honour to
have the road repaired forthwith and refused to accept the
Director’s plea that he could do nothing as the road was
outside municipal limits.! His resignation having been refused,
he has applied for ten days leave in Tehran to canvass, according
to popular report, for his brother who seeks re-election in
Khorramshahr.
(17) The public health authorities report four cages of
ciptheria in October, three of them fatal.
(18) The Ittehadiyeh Kargaran-i-Khuzistan held its first
considerable public meeting on 8 th October. Nouzar Ashour, the
Tehran speaker advertised, did not appear and his deputy, one
Ali Umid, harangued an audience of about one thousand labourers.
Disavowing all connection with the Allies, he told them their
founder, one Yusuf, had attempted to found the movement gome
| thirteen years before while he was an employee of the Anglo-
Iranian Oil Co. in Abadan but had ended up in prison as a result
of the machinations of his employers. The intervention of the
police saved the speaker from bodily harm,
IV. Economic .
I (19) The bread in Ahwaz town remains excellent and it is
> /difficult