Coll 28/120 ‘Persia. Ahwaz – Consular diaries.’ [‎187r] (374/669)

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AH\/AZ DIARY NO b 9 x'’ORvMAY. with tha Compliment'
! of the
I'' YUnder Secretary of State
^ ifo^ Foreign Affaira
,A 8 Kermanshah.
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(1) 0 Lt«ColeD»\Vol 5 ’!e^ner, late P
arrived in Ahv/az on 11th May and a p Fumed charge of the pc Ft
on 12th 0 He visited IChorramshahr, Aha^ap/ and frafch r -s.ran
soon after his arrival,, . —;......... ™«3
2)* j'dWAZ p Alarm and despondency were caused by Falahati
see para”20 of diary No.8) returning to Abadan, without the
knowledge of the Ahwaz police, and there addressing a meet
ing,, ?he Abadan authorities seized this opportunity to
blame the Governor-General for altering the sentence of the
Abadan Military Court, and questioned his competency to do
sOo The Governor-General characteristically put the blame
on the Consulate* Falahati has now been sent off to Tehran,
( 3)0 The Xargaran held a May Day meeting in Ahwaz
of little importance* They later tried to extract from the
Director of Finance special privileges for the Union in re
gard to bread„ When these were very properly refused, they
wrote him a threatening letter, but later decided to apologise.
Towards the end of the month mformat, 10
that Fatimi (para 18 of diary for March refers)
(4; o
received
was to be released on bail
informed the heads of the
Justice Department in no uncertain terms that in such cases
as this and that of Xazeruni, we would, not tolerate the
perversion of justice on pecuniary grounds, which seemed
to be habitual here* I gather that there is a considerable
flutter in the judical dove-cotes*
(5) * The Xhuzistan Club was reopened on the 27th
May,' when British and American officers were invited to
attend an evening party in the Club garden. This -Tub shut
down in 1941 when its building was taken over by the NAAFIo
they relinquished it over a year ago, they left it in
a state that the Club could not reopen, mid even now
the garden and two ro ms can be used, I\ is hoped
the Qlub may become a centre for British Tultural
activities; the British Council have already presented a
books, and on the occasion of the opening, the Consulate
When
such
only
that
lew
w a s
able to show the film ‘'Grass 11 , supported by a couple of
newsreels.'
n. ECONOMIC .
(6). The black market price of wheat ?ose in the
middle of the month to 8800 Rials per ton and las new sunk
to 8600 Rials, Barley ha^ risen somewhat to RLs.4500. Rice
has fallen but not as much as the usual seasonal decline 0
Other prices remain steady.
(V). The Vice-Consul attended a meetinj of land
lords at Ram Hormuz at which the Director of Finance,
accompanied by two British Officers from M.B.°oC. took under
takings to deliver grain. All the undertakings for Xhuzistan
have now been collected; the result will not be quite as
high as Mr. Solomon had hoped. Captain "irnmons arrival from
Ramadan to study the situation covered by the failure of the
non-irrigated grain crops and report on whether :t will be
necessary to import grain to feed people in the affected
areas, which are principally around ;.nd to the noi-th of Ahwaz,
His conclusions are understood to be that with the large
scale movement of able bot-ied men to work in Khorramshahr
and *-badan, possible localised food shortage* can be dealt
with by importing 2000 tons of potatoes from Lurp^&trft-^ The
/subsequent;
*U J T.