خارجي ٤١/٥٠٠١ "بلاد فارس - الشؤون الداخلية (إرساليات متنوعة)". [و‎‎٦] (٢٤٨/١١)

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demands of the unemployed, now included agrarian reform in their programme
and began to stir up unrest among the peasants. In August Tudeh agitators in
a village near Tabriz, while trying to induce the peasants to withhold the land
lord’s share of the harvest, clashed with the landlord and his supporters, and a
fight ensued in which some persons, including the landlord, were killed. At
Maragheh, in Azerbaijan, the Tudeh occupied the Government offices and turned
the Government officials out. Although the Russian Ambassador disowned this
movement on behalf of the Russians and (rather suggestively) on behalf of the
Tudeh, and told the Minister for Foreign Affairs that the Government was free
to take any action it liked to restore order in Maragheh, the Persian troops who
ventured to arrest the local Tudeh leader were themselves confined to barracks
by the Russians, who also released the prisoner. In Khorassan Tudeh complicity
was suspected in a mutiny of the Persian army officers described below in the
section entitled “ Persian Army.” Tudeh activity it is true was not allowed
to go entirely unopposed. Local peasantry encouraged perhaps by emissaries of
Seyid Zia’s party frequently came to blows with the Tudeh, especially in
Mazanderan, but by early September the civil administration at Chalus, Sari,
Shahi and Babul was virtually in Tudeh hands, and armed Turcomans with
Tudeh armlets were patrolling the railway stations of Bandar i Gaz and Shahi.
11. As a result of these disturbances and of reported disaffection in the
army the Government ordered, on the 23rd August, the strict application in
Tehran of the Military Government law including the prohibition of all political
demonstrations, the suppression of newspapers which incite to violence, and
the re-imposition of a curfew. The Government also sent a commission of enquiry
to Azerbaijan and their arrival early in September was the occasion for the issue
of a manifesto “by the people of Tabriz” appealing for protection against
Tudeh oppression. The notices were, however, at once torn down by the Tudeh,
and the commission of enquiry appears to have achieved little. In fact, the activity
of the Russians in the North continued to cause increasing anxiety. They were
paralysing the Persian administration, encouraging a Kurdish nationalist move
ment, and allowing no political party except the Tudeh to exist. Until the removal
of the censorship in September they filled the world with Tass propaganda about
Persia, and used the censorship to suppress news from other sources. A new
development was reported at this time from Azerbaijan-—the formation of a
” Democratic party” which issued a proclamation on the 3rd September
demanding autonomy for Azerbaijan “ with due respect to the independence of
Iran,” and the right of the Azerbaijanis “ to manage the affairs of the province
as they wish.” The close connexion between this new party and the Tudeh was
obvious from the beginning. The Tudeh movement had recently incurred much
odium owing to its open connexion with the Russians. Its complicity in the
military mutiny in Meshed had also by now been clearly established. It was
therefore doubtless thought necessary to adopt new tactics. Hence the reorganisa
tion, under Soviet inspiration, of the forces of disintegration in Azerbaijan under
the new title of the “ Democratic” party. This party held a meeting in Tabriz
on the 25th September at which it elected sixty delegates to attend a General
Conference of the party to be held early in October.
12. Of other party activity during this period there is little to report.
Seyid Zia’s party, the Iradeh i Milli, had planned to hold its first open air
meeting at Meshed on the 22nd July, but early in the same morning Soviet troops,
accompanied by Persian police, arrested many members of the party committee,
searched their houses and confiscated documents relating to the party. Subse
quently, most of the arrested men were released, but seven were banished, and
after the dispersal of Seyid Zia’s supporters the close co-operation of the Tudeh
and the Soviet military propaganda authorities in Meshed was more in evidence
than ever.
13. Tudeh attempts to hold party meetings and demonstrations in Tehran
in mid-September were frustrated by prompt measures taken by the military
governor who closed the party offices. A considerable number of Left-wing news
papers were also suppressed during September, though some reappeared under
other names. The Persian Government began also to show unusual courage in
protesting to the Soviet Embassy against Russian activities in the North and in
giving information on the subject to the press. They were encouraged to do so
partly by the realisation that the evacuation of the whole of Persia bv Allied
troops was only a matter of months and partly by the abolition of the censorship
on press telegrams which allowed the Persian Government to defend itself against
the scurrilous and partial reports of Tass. The Persian Government’s protests
against Soviet interference in the internal affairs of the country either met
[72—139] ' B 2