Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎315v] (642/978)

22
Iraq
The Opposition Group (see last Sum
mary) under the leadership of Sa’ad Salih,
continues to canvass for support, parti
cularly among out-of-work politicians.
Both Hikmat es Sulaiman. Prime Minister
from 1936-37, and Jamil Madfai, who has
had four spells as Premier between 1933
and 1941, have been approached in this
connection, but their reactions are not
known. The Group have threatened
various forms of political action, such as
strikes and demonstrations by students,
civil disobedience and even raising a revolt
among the Middle Euphrates tribes. How
ever, their achievements to date are negli
gible and they lack cohesion, due to diver
gencies of political opinion.
Persia
There is still no sign of the newly-elected
Fifteenth Majlis assembling, although the
Tehran newspaper Dad (moderate left) has
given 23rd June as the date of opening.
Qawam es-Sultaneh is in no hurry to
exchange his unchallenged control of public
affairs for the endless bickering of the
Majlis debates and continues to procras
tinate, despite the mounting volume of
criticism from the press at the corruption
of his cabinet and the incessant clamour
of the deputies who want to start drawing
their pay. The educated section of the
populace, mindful of the garrulous futility
of the last Majlis, are apathetic towards
the assembly of the new one, while the
Russians, now somewhat uneasy about the
reception of their oil concession bill, are
not pressing for it to convene.
Reports from press correspondents in
Tehran of an influx of Russian insurgents
into Azerbaijan have been vigorously
denied by the Persian Government, as has
also a statement made by the B.B.C. on
the 20th May that the Russo-Persian
frontier had been closed. The latter state
ment appears to have been occasioned by >
an administrative decision to entrust the
Ministry of War with the responsibility
of guarding the country’s frontiers, a task >
hitherto undertaken by the Gendarme^*.
H.M. Consul-General, Tabriz, confirms that
there has been no Soviet infiltration into
Persia, but reported on the 22nd May in
formation from the G.O.C. Azerbaijan
that the Russians were concentrating
appreciable forces in Nakhichevan and
Erivan (Armenia), while increased
Russian activity on the frontier near
Astara has been reported by H.M. Vice-
Consul, Resht. The general Soviet policy
towards Azerbaijan appears to be to keep
the whole province in a state of unrest and
anxiety over possible Russian re-entry and
to incite the Kurds and Assyrians in
Western Azerbaijan against the Persian
Army. The activities of the Soviet con
sular officials have shown a marked in
crease lately, and an organised system of
espionage, reaching the Turkish Consulate
at Rezaieh, is believed to have been built
up.
On the 25th May the Shah visited
Tabriz, where he was accorded a very en
thusiastic reception, the spontaneity of
which cannot be doubted. In his speech to
the people he stressed his interest in Azer
baijan and his desire to raise its economic
and social standards.
The body of the late Shah, Riza Pahlevi,
is to be re-interred in a special mausoleum
which is being built at the Shrine of Shah
Abdul Azim, a place of pilgrimage a few
miles south of Tehran. The original pro
posal was that it should be buried at
Meshed, but this was opposed by the
mullahs. A special delegation will travel
to Cairo to collect the body, which arrived
there from S. Africa in 1944.
THE FAR EAST
Japan
The new constitution has got off to a
flying start. The Diet, on assembling,
designated Mr. Tetsu Katayama, Chair
man of the largest Party—the Social Demo
crats—as Premier, and on the 31st May
Mr. Katayama announced the formation of
his Cabinet consisting of six Social Demo
crats (1 without portfolio), 7 Democrats (2
without portfolio), 2 People’s Cooperatives
(1 without portfolio) and 1 Independent.
He has stated his intention to follow a
middle course leaning neither to the
extreme right nor to the extreme left and
“ demarcating a clear line vis-d-vis Com
munism.” This path, should it prove prac
ticable, ought to satisfy public opinion
whose main objection to the Liberal
Government was that it leaned altogether
too far to the right. The new Premier is a
Christian.
The Foreign Minister is Mr. Hitoshi
Ashida, lately of the Liberal Party and
now Chairman of the Democratic Party. A
Counsellor of Embassy in Turkey and Bel
gium successively, he later became editor
of the Japan Times, the Government organ
during the war-period. There are rumours