خارجي ٤١/٥٠٠١ "بلاد فارس - الشؤون الداخلية (إرساليات متنوعة)". [و‎‎١‎١‎٧] (٢٤٨/٢٣٣)

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THIS DOCUMENT IsQfffi ^Rd^EJ^'TM’jHS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
PERSIA.
e>- t0
With the Compliments
F
August 6, 194^.
4037
•HI
CONFIDENTIAL.
[L 4619/3655/34]
Fl<
Under Se<
for Fo
St^te
Section 1.
(Received A ugust 6.) ^
Sir R. Dullard to Mr. Eden.
(No. 248.)
Sir.
IN his despatch No. 197 of the 21st June Mr. Holman gave a general revie
;;7 SEP 1942:--
Copy No. H2
Tehran, July 28. 1942. 'ytfj/
n\ ms aespatcn i\o. oi mo zisi uunc i\±i. xxuiinan gave a general review^ / fryViJi*
of the events of the past three months and of the situation in Persia. Subsequent^ ff'l
tc SVL
fayflL
a. ix,.
events, I regret to say, Shave demonstrated only too clearly that the situation here „
cannot be separated altogether from the fortunes of war. 1 he German successes
in South Russia and in Libya have inevitably affected public opinion and
encouraged a tendency to sit on the fejice, which enemy propaganda has certainly
increased.
2. Early in June it became apparent that an enemy propaganda drive was
being conducted in Persia, and reports also came in of enemy agents passing
through Turkey into Persia via Kurdistan. Our attention was drawn at the same
time to a series of accidents, some serious, some slight, which were taking place
at the ports and on the Trans-Iranian railway, some of which could only be
attributed to sabotage. On the 20th June Mr. Holman made three requests to the
Prime Minister : (a) That visas to enter and leave Persia should only be granted fV J
after reference to this legation—in practice to the .representative of Cici; (b) that
the proclamation making Axis propaganda illegal should be made more specific
by laying down the precise penalties which infraction of it would entail; and
{c) that eighteen persons suspected on good grounds of Axis activities should be
handed over to us for interrogation and, in fact, detention.
3. The Prime Minister granted the first request without demur; and
arrangements have also been made to control the issue of transit visas via Iraq.
Nevertheless, the frontiers of Persia cannot possibly be closed to all unwanted
travellers, and we must certainly expect that enemy agents will continue to travel
with relatively little hindrance from Turkey through the disturbed areas of
Kurdistan into the interior of Persia.
4. The second request also, regarding the proclamation on Axis activities
and propaganda, was granted, though there may well be loopholes in the articles
of the penal and military codes now referred to as applying to infractions of the
proclamation, by which a clever person could elude punishment. Although Axis
propaganda continues and has undoubtedly increased, the means to combat it
should now exist if only the Persian Government can be induced to take the
necessary action against any offenders caught.
5. The third request, for eighteen suspects to be handed over for interroga
tion, has, as you are aware, been met by the Prime Minister with a request that
interrogation should not take place at Ahwaz. The idea of being sent to Ahwaz
in summer is, to a Persian, peculiarly horrible, but until recently 10th Army have
felt unable to arrange for detention and interrogation elsewdiere. It is now
hoped to arrange a camp at Kermanshah for the purpose, but the Prime
Minister is most unwilling to hand over any more Persians to us, and has, in
fact, gone back on a promise he made to hand over eleven of the eighteen on the
25th July. His selection of the eleven was itself designed to obviate trouble for
himself and to create it for us; the eleven were either persons of no importance,
or else men connected with the army whose arrest would tend to arouse yet more
anti-British feeling in that on the whole distinctly pro-Axis force.
6. A demand for the handing over of Persians in Persia to the British
military authorities is a very far reaching one. But it is unfortunately all too
clear that no other solution offers the smallest security that the detained persons
will be properly isolated. Of the first six most notorious Axis sympathisers
arrested last April, several were sent to Yezd to be kept under close surveillance,
but were, in fact, left at liberty; and one, Yasiri, escaped and has been at large
near Isfahan ever since in spite of frequent representations. In deference to
our representations they were then sent to Kermanshah to be kept under joint
guard: but this was also very unsatisfactory, and subsequently all were sent to
Ahwaz for internment by the British military authorities. We shall be more
r Av< Ry iSc^r
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