مجموعة ٣٩/٢٨ "بلاد فارس: مراسلات مطبوعة ١٩٢٩-١٩٣٦" [ظ‎‎٦] (١١٧٤/٢٣)

Ffcca-'iS
124
7 It is noteworthy also that when a deadlock appeared to have) been
reached in January in the negotiations at Bagdad the ®° ve , ,
seemed to have conceived that appeal to the Shah could best be d e g
Angora and the Turkish Ambassador in Iran. And it will be remembered
that alter Persia had defined her own frontier with Turkey, the Persian
and Afghan Governments invited a Turkish general to preside over he
arbitral commission to fix the Perso-Afghan frontier, and that the lurk
discharged this duty with success.
8 . The reason underlying the Turco-Iranian rapproachement is no doubt
to be found not merely in contiguity of territory or a common faith, but
largely in the Shah’s conviction that Turkey and Iran are wayfarers on the
same road of progress towards westernisation. Both have included m their
programmes dress reform, language reform, the destruction of the power o
the clergy, the substitution of a national spirit for a national religion, apart
from increase in armaments, and improvement of communications which, of
course, are in no sense peculiar to these two countries. Nevertheless, to
call the Iranian method a mere slavish imitation of the Turkish would, I
believe, be less than the truth. I prefer to think that the Shah regards
Turkey as a kind of pilot engine and hopes that, should there be a bomb on
the line to westernisation, the sight of Atatiirk ascending skywards might
enable Reza Shah to apply his brakes in time.
9. In the light of the above it is difficult to grudge Turkey the position
of best friend. From this friendship the Shah may well hope, also to get
some insurance against Turkey’s ally, Soviet Russia, and even to exert
greater influence on Iraq. Against this friendship between the heads of
the two States must be set the age-long hostility between the two countries
and the intense resentment felt in many parts of Iran, notably round Tabriz,
against Turkey as an ineradically barbarous State responsible for the un
wanted changes now being forced upon a far more civilised country.
10 . I am sending a copy of this despatch to His Majesty’s Ambassador
at Angora.
I have, etc.
NEVILE BUTLER,
(67)
Letter from His Majesty’s Charge d’affaires, Tehran, to the Foreign
Office, London, No. C. A. -74, dated the 10th July 1936.
A German 3-engined Junkers commercial aeroplane arrived in Tehran
on June 30th and left for Afghanistan after a week’s stay. The local
press reported that the object of the visit was the study of meteorological
conditions.
2 . The Japanese Minister told Simmonds that he thought the German
plane was studying conditions for an eventual service between Berlin and
Urumchi via, Ankara, Baghdad, Tehran and Kabul. At Urumchi con
nection would be made with a further service to Shanghai. He said the
Germans had been granted by the Chinese Government the concession for an
air service from Europe to China, but the Soviets had refused to allow the
German service to operate over Soviet territory. The proposed route was
interesting from a political and propaganda viewpoint, but was unlikely
to be remunerative.
3. Pybus has heard a similar story from the French Military Attach^ so
there may be something in it. Walker agrees too that the Germans are pro
bably wanting to run an air service through here and that the present trip
is in the nature of a meteorological survey; but he has no information as to
the proposed route after Kabul.