خارجي ٤١/٥٠٠١ "بلاد فارس - الشؤون الداخلية (إرساليات متنوعة)". [ظ‎‎٦‎٧] (٢٤٨/١٣٤)

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eat up Raphael Street, which was so named as a fair swap for a Firdausi Street
in Rome. The Persian Government are now saying that, if no agreement is
arrived at on this point, no individual names will he given, hut to satisfy everyone
“ Churchill Street ’’ will be called “ Tehran Conference Street.” There is also
a plan to erect a monument in the Shah Reza Avenue to the north of the Soviet
and British Missions, with a suitable inscription. M. Soheily, peeping out of
perhaps the last wisp of the cloud of glory which he trails, wants to say it witR
angels. His Majesty s Legation will do their best to see that the monument, u
built, shall be as worthy of the occasion as is possible, for if some of the Persian
suggestions are carried out, the monument will be a serious rival to a plaster
nvmph-and-champigon monstrosity near by, which serves as a landmark to the
British community under the name of the “ Slut and Mushroom.”
Visit of President Penes.
9. Dr. Benes, President of the Czechoslovak Republic, stayed in Tehran for
two days on his way back from Moscow to London. He was the guest of the Shah
and the object of a display of official regard which is attributed partly to gratitude
for the services to Persia which Dr. Benes is supposed by Persians to have
performed when appointed arbitrator by the League of Nations in the Anglo-
Persian dispute about the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, and partly to a desire on
the part of the Persians to show that they know how to treat State visitors when
they are not frustrated as they think they were at the time of the recent conference.
Dr. Benes was given an honorary degree, and was feted at a dinner at the Ministry
for Foreign Affairs at which the Shah and the Queen were present. He made a
good impression, and his visit may well have served a cause which he and other
Czechs have much in mind, viz., the consolidation of the position of Skoda and
other Czech enterprises in this country against the day of material development
which is expected to set in after the war.
Internal Affairs.
10. The 13th Majlis came to an end on the 23rd November, 1943, in a
torrent of insincere oratory. The Prime Minister and others pointed out that
not only had the treaty of alliance with the Allies been signed during the
13th legislative assembly’s period, but war had also been declared on Germany.
The speakers omitted to mention the failure of the Majlis to deal with the major
administrative problems of the country, nor the fact that so many of its members
'were greedy hoarders. The aged President of the Majlis, Hassan Isfandiary,
was voted a life pension of 10,000 rials per month.
11 . Taking advantage of the fact that the 13th Majlis had come to an
end and that the 14th would not be convened for some time, the Shah forced
a reconstruction of the Cabinet upon the Prime Minister. M. Soheily and the
members of his Cabinet resigned on the 14th December and a new Cabinet, more
satisfactory to the Shah, was formed the next day. The members of the new
Government are :—
Ali Soheily : Prime Minister.
Muhammad SaTd Maragha’i : Foreign Minister.
Amanullah Ardalan : Minister of Finance.
Muhsin Sadr : Minister of Justice.
Hamid Sayyah : Minister of Posts and Telegraphs.
Dr. Isa Sadiq : Minister of Education.
Mustafa Adi: Minister of State.
Abdul Hussein Hajhir : Minister of the Interior.
Nasrullah Intizam : Minister of Communications.
Nuri Isfandiari: Minister of Agriculture.
Ibrahim Zand : Minister of War.
Brigadier Ismail Shafa’i: Minister of Commerce and Industry.
Dr. Ghani : Minister of Health.
M. Hajhir is still in London, so the Prime Minister keeps the Ministry of the
Interior in his own hands. Four of the Ministers have never held Cabinet
office before, viz., Nuri Isfandiari, a professional diplomat; Zand, military
cadet (in Russia), lawyer, banker, and more recently comptroller of the Shah’s
finances; Dr. Ghani, a savant rather than a doctor and certainly no administrator;
and General Shafa’i, manager of the madhine-gun factory that is now making
machine-pistols for the Russians. The Shah’s main object was to get rid of
Ahmedi and to replace him by one of his own men and so be able to run the
army himself. It was suspected at the time that a desire to please the Russians