Coll 28/120 ‘Persia. Ahwaz – Consular diaries.’ [‎220r] (440/669)

their beasts by cash, rather than have further dealings with
the Persian military. 9uch raids bear out the contention
made by everyone in the area, that if disarmament i s to take
place it must be general, since otherwise a portion of the
population is rendered defenceless and at the mercy of the
rest. The disarmament of the Beni Turuf which i s expected
imminently, is therefore welcome. Five of the most powerful
sheikhs of the Beni Turuf are on the peint of leaving for"
Tehran to discuss the problem of the land settlement (see
bel»w para 8; and there is a reasonable chance that if they
are detained in Tehran during the operations, the disarmament
may take place without bloodshed. This may ,of course not be'
according t# the Persian Army T s programme, for wh®m such an
operation is effective propaganda, so l»ng as it is not too
tame. The laurels which have gone t« Humayuni’s head (in
every sense) from the Mian Ab operations may demand further
embellishment.
economic.
Th us is tan . (6;. The distribution monopoly g, 2 ods in the
Rixth Ustan has now reached such proportions (1,065,000
persons were receiving sugar and tea rations at the end of
Mordad)^ that the black market for these commodities has been
"^i^tualxy broken, in Ahwaz the price of sugar, which a couple
of months ago was Rls.12#, is now Rl<=! O 60, and in Behbehan the
black market price has fallen below the Government price. The
losses which must have befallen the h®arding merchants are
most gratifying, similar falls have taken place in the prices
of tea and cloth.
. ( G- • In Basht-i-Mishnn area, it was discovered
that distribution was not being carried out quite as smoothly
it was thought. False names and sijjil'numbers were being
used to extract from Ahwaz more tea and sugar than was re
quired. It seems probable that both the Rheikhs and the
Commission in charge (composed principally of the hi ea( a s 0 f pr Ae
Persian Government Departments) were in collusion. Mr.Solomon
sol^ad this by distributing each villager's share ho re—
the vi:Lla g e whL 0 brought in the sijjils. The
big sheikha (as opposed to the "little" sheikhs, wh# form a
rival faction, and are therefore anxious to win Government
approval) refused to co-operate in arranging far this method
of distribution, but were eventually obliged to by their
peasants, who saw others profiting. The new Bakhshdar,
Hassan Turteati, also showed a marked lack of co-operation,
and is believed to have extracted his profit from the latest
cloth distribution. Falsafi (see para IS belor) was Bent-
out by the Justice Department to investigate, but having *
seen the Bakhshdar, returned within a few hours. Although he
came back empty-handed, his pockets were presumably 7 ' full 0
\ 8 )« I'he same Sheikftls, who are naturally dismayed
at the proposal to divide the Khalesejat (Crown Lands) among
the peasants are hastening to Tehran to .^ee what intrigue can
o2 Szpl X V, 1 ;' i; '' reported that they each extracted His,
2o,0Q0 from uneir peasants for the ■»®urnsy J on u-o <-■
tnat they were goin+
waived.
oo arir-^ge for ccnscrii
P U jkOIi iyO
x xy'e h'
(9). In Ahwaz Mr.sdemon has allottee
-.and or. the ngnt bank or* the river to lTuy*^rs
guaranteed to build immediately..
^ ne question of po^t-war unempl®yrmant in
has been pre-occupying many minds. Mr.^olomon summ®rel a
commission of the leading employers in Ahwaz to discuss That
/post-war