خارجي ٤١/٥٠٠١ "بلاد فارس - الشؤون الداخلية (إرساليات متنوعة)". [و‎‎٢‎٠] (٢٤٨/٣٩)

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demonstration in Tehran to celebrate the Allied jvictoiy^n^ to dejjnand the
evacuation of Persia by Allied troops, and the release -M2t^mtexifees. The
meeting was attacked by members of the Tudeh, and one of the Adalat party was
killed and several were injured. The police failed to intervene, possibly because
the Government, at Russian instigation, had suspended the Chief of Police at
Isfahan for taking action against Tudeh rioters. In retaliation Seyyid Zia’s
^supporters demonstrated on three successive days in front of the Majlis.
^ 32. In April security in Isfahan was good, and the local Russian-'] udeh
campaign of intimidation against Persian officials who were striving to maintain
law and order seemed to be dying down. But in the middle of May the Isfahan
Tudeh leader Bahrampur returned from Tehran with a large sum of money which
he used to stir up the Tudeh sympathisers, with the result that there were some
clashes between them and anti-Tudeh workers in the town. On the 25th May a
leader of the anti-Tudeh Labour Union of Isfahan was murdered by Tudeh
ruffians. The result was a wave of resentment against the already seriously
discredited Tudeh. The authorities immediately replaced the Acting Chief of
Police, who was believed to be in Russian pay, by a military officer, and a number
of arrests were carried out. But their failure to bring the principal instigators
of the crime to book, subsequently caused a good deal of anxiety as it was felt that
the Tudeh, having failed to make headway by lawful means, had now definitely-
adopted a policy of terrorism.
33. During May there was increased Tudeh activity also in the Kermanshah
area culminating in a strike of workmen at the refinery of the Kermanshah
Petroleum Company. The strike was not a spontaneous movement caused by
genuine grievances against the company, but there was every reason to believe
that it was in the nature of a try-out to be followed, if successful, by more serious
outbreaks among labour in Abadan and elsewhere. When it became apparent
that the strike was a failure, the Tudeh press, which had hitherto been inciting
the workmen, published a statement that it had not approved the strike which
should be ended as soon as possible to avoid hindering the prosecution of the war
against Japan.
34. Seyyid Zia’s party, the Iradey i Milli, continued to increase in numbers
and activity.' It is taking steps to open branches in the provinces wherever the
Tudeh is established The Tudeh and other Left-wing papers continued
regularly to attack Seyyid Zia as the agent of imperialism and a would-be
dictator'. At the end of June, the Seyyid retorted with a violent counter-attack
in a speech in which he accused the Tudeh of being the tools of the Russians.
Persian Press and Public Opinion, and Soviet Influence.
35. There have been a number of casualties among the press at the hands
of the military governor of Tehran during the period under review. These
suppressions have caused the press to protest at the alleged illegal activities of
the military governor and to demand the abrogation of the military governorship.
In fact, the military government has little authority or power behind it, and
the position of the military governor, subject as he is to the whims and caprices
of the general officer commanding, the Minister of War, the Court and the
Cabinet, any of whom may throw him over on any given point, is instable. This
lack of security of tenure has been reflected in a lack of consistency in his treat
ment of the press. A further factor making for the unsatisfactory working of
the military government is the, at times, severe pressure put on the Government
and/or the military government by the Soviet Embassy to take restrictive measures
against papers which have incurred the displeasure of the Soviet authorities,
pressure which few Governments have the courage to resist. The result has been
that the military government has not observed the strictest impartiality towards
the press. Bitter and distorted attacks on Great Britain have been passed over,
whereas papers containing relatively objective accounts of Russian activities
in Persia and Communist doctrines have been suppressed at the demand of the
Russian Embassy. Further, the period of suppression of any given paper has
tended to be lengthy or brief according to whether it was opposed or supported
by the Soviet Embassy.
36. The end of the war in Europe was welcomed by the press and the public.
The general tendency was to ignore the war in the Far East and to assume that
world ‘conditions would return to normal in the immediate future. The Tudeh
press warned that the fight against fascism would go on, and, somewhat ominously,
tried to make out that fascism and international reaction, having been beaten in
Europe, were, in their death-throes, trying to establish themselves in countries
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