Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎25r] (49/978)

second article of the law of 2nd
December, 1944, undertook discus
sions for the drawing up of the
agreement dated 4th April. 1946.
regarding the creation of a mixed
Perso-Soviet Oil Company; and
^ whereas the Persian Majlis do not
regard this interpretation as being
consistent with the real purport and
meaning of the aforementioned law,
they consider the above discussions
and agreement to be without effect
and null and void. The third
paragraph of the communique of the
4th April, 1946, is also null and
void.
“ (ii) The Government shall make
arrangements for a technical and
scientific survey with a view to the
discovery of oil deposits, and shall
within a period of five years, draw
and prepare complete technical and
scientific maps of the oil-bearing
areas of the country so that the
Majlis shall be able, with full know
ledge and information of the exist
ence of oil in sufficient quantities,
to make arrangements for the com
mercial exploitation of this national
wealth by passing the necessary
laws.
“ (iii) The grant of any kind of conces
sion to foreigners for the extraction
of the oil and its by-products of the
country, and the creation of any
kind of company for this purpose in
which foreigners are in any manner
shareholders, is absolutely for
bidden.
“ (iv) If, after the technical survey
mentioned in paragraph (ii), it is
established that oil exists in com
mercial quantities in the northern
areas of Persia, the Government are
authorised to enter into negotiations
with the Soviet Government for the
sale to that government of the pro
ducts of this oil and to inform the
Majlis of the results.
“ (v) The Government are charged in
all instances where the rights of the
people of Persia in the sources of
the country’s wealth, whether below
or above the ground, have been
impaired, especially regarding the
oil in the south, to undertake the
necessary negotiations and measures
with a view to redeeming the rights
of the nation, and they shall inform
the Majlis of the results.”
After the submission of this proposal
Qawam spoke for two-and-a-half hours,
stating that the 1946 Agreement with
Sadchikov had been extracted from him
under great pressure, that it was a Govern
mental, not a personal decision, and he
could not therefore undertake personal
responsibility for it, and that in his posi
tion any true patriot would have acted
similarly. He urged that the resolution
should not be rashly passed without
referring to the proper commissions, and
requested that the door should be left open
for further discussions with the Soviet
Union. After Qawam’s speech the resolu
tion was passed by 102 votes to 2.
The Chief of the General Staff has stated
that the Soviet troops on the Araxes
frontier, referred to in Summary No. 412,
were withdrawn on or about the 4th
October, leaving the frontier garrisons at
their former strength. The Chief of the
General Staff considered that the increase
was about four times normal.
The Persian military authorities esti
mate that some 60,000 rifles, pistols and
machine-guns have been collected so far
from Kurdistan and Azerbaijan, 60
per cent, of which were Persian Army
weapons lost when the garrisons in those
areas surrendered to Persian forces in
December 1946. A further 11,000 rifles
have been collected from other tribal areas,
but some 120,000 are estimated to be still
in tribal hands, 85 per cent, of them in
Pars and Khuzistan (among the Bakhtiari,
Qashgai and Boir Ahmedi—see special
article “ The Tribes of Southern Persia ”
in Summary No. 365 of the 23rd October,
1946). Little or no progress has been made
with the disarming of the Qashgai owing
to the influence of Nasir Khan, the leader
of the tribe, supported, it appears, by the
Prime Minister, who has refused to sanc
tion military operations against the tribe
and has also turned down the proposal to
send Nasir on a protracted holiday abroad.
THE FAR EAST
China
A fresh economic crisis in China is
claiming almost undivided attention.
Rapidly rising prices, which the new
control regulations are not considered
sufficiently practical to curb, are believed
once again to have driven the country to