مجموعة ٢٨ /٦٧ "بلاد فارس: تقارير سنوية، ١٩٣٢-" [و‎‎١‎٦‎٧] (٦٤٤/٣٣٣)

[15259] b 2
steadily less, and at the end of the year a position had been reached in which
some modification of policy seemed almost inevitable.
3. The main feature of the year’s social legislation was the abolition of the
veil. This was effected in somewhat ruthless fashion, but as far as can be judged
the original violence of feeling caused by this reform had largely disappeared by
the end of the year.
4. In foreign affairs, no developments of first-rate importance fall to be
recorded. The negotiations over the Shatt-el-Arab continued, but without result.
They were resumed with, on the Iranian side, some hopes of success, when the
change of Government in Iraq in October led to the disappearance from the scene
of Yasin Pasha. The close relations of Iran with Turkey and Afghanistan were
emphasised by the cordial attentions paid to the Afghan Minister of War during
his visit to Tehran in November, and by the visit to Iran of a Turkish delegation
under M. Cemal Husnu, which arrived at Tehran in October to conclude a series
of agreements with the Iranian Government. The mission was still here at the
end of the year.
II. —Foreign Relations.
(A) United Kingdom and India.
(1) General.
5. No negotiations for a general treaty took place during the year under
review, and the major outstanding questions were, indeed, barely mentioned. In
January the Minister for Foreign Affairs informed Flis Majesty s Minister that
he wished to have a conversation with him before his departure on leave in regard
to the possible settlement of all questions still outstanding between the United
Kingdom and Iran. He mentioned the demarcation of the Baluchistan frontier,
Bahrein and the islands in the Gulf as subjects which he would like to discuss,
but added that there were really no serious outstanding difficulties, and that he
thought the moment had arrived to clear everything up. M. Kazemi did not,
however, pursue the matter further, being possibly put off by Sir Hughe
Knatchbull-Hugessen’s refusal to sign his suggested <£ gentleman’s agreement ”
(see section on Iraq), and Sir Hughe departed on leave at the end of the month
without having obtained any fresh statement of the Iranian standpoint.
6. Thereafter the subject was never mentioned, and the only indication that
the Iranians still had the idea of negotiations in mind was given by M. Soheily
during the course of an informal conversation in the autumn with the counsellor to
His Majesty’s Legation, when he informed him that the Shah had designated
him to replace M. Ala in London. M. Soheily then said that he had considerable
misgivings about going to London, as the Shah had made it clear that he expected
a good deal from him there, adding that the Shah had in mind certain questions
in°the Gulf. M. Soheily was vague in his remarks, but he made an allusion to
certain islands and specifically mentioned Tamb.
7. Apart from the question of the Irano-Iraqi dispute, the matters with
which His Majesty’s Legation were called upon to deal were accordingly all
more or less of a minor nature. In the Gulf the year was uneventful, and it is
noteworthy that there is nothing whatever to record about such hardy annuals
as the Arms Traffic question, Abu Musa and (with the exception of M. Soheily’s
passing remark) Tamb. In East Iran it was possible to note a considerable
improvement in the attitude of the authorities towards British subjects, thanks
to the vigorous representations of Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, who made it
abundantly clear to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs before his departure on
leave that a most serious impression was being created by the continued failure
of the Iranian Government to remove the very legitimate grievances under which
British subjects in that part of the country were suffering. These representations
only bore fruit after Sir Hughe’s departure, but the Iranian Government then went
a long way towards settling all outstanding questions. In general it may be said
that, though a number of new questions unfortunately, though probably inevitably,
arose during the course of the year, a greater number of old ones were settled, and
the balance sheet at the end of the year showed a distinctly healthier tendency.