مجموعة ٢٨ /٦٧ "بلاد فارس: تقارير سنوية، ١٩٣٢-" [ظ‎‎١‎٦‎٧] (٦٤٤/٣٣٤)

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8. In general a friendlier tone seems to have been adopted towards the
British, at any rate in Tehran. His Majesty’s Legation were given many proofs of
sympathy at the time of the death of His Majesty King George V. The Shah
ordered that the flags on Government buildings should be flown at half-mast for
three days, and all the Ministers and leading officials attended the memorial
service. Reports from His Majesty’s consular officers indicated that a similar
feeling of friendly and respectful sympathy existed throughout the country, the
only jarring note being struck by the officials at Kerman, where the Governor-
General did not call at His Majesty’s consulate to express his condolences, and
where all non-officials who did call were sent for by the police next day to answer
for their conduct. Not content with this, the police took the names of all Iranians
who attended the memorial service.
9. Such shocking behaviour, though fortunately an isolated instance, serves,
nevertheless, to draw attention to the fact that, though Anglo-Iranian relations
in the year under review were “ calmes,” they cannot be described as “ confiantes ”
(to quote the two adjectives which the Minister for Foreign Affairs once used in
conversation to describe Irano-Russian relations). Thus, though it became
possible for members of His Majesty’s Legation to widen their social contacts
with Iranians, there was by no means a corresponding move towards greater
freedom in most provincial centres, and many of His Majesty’s consular officers
remained in a position of being shunned like the plague by all non-officials and
boycotted by the officials on all except strictly official occasions.
10. Another illustration of the fact that the ice was still thin was afforded
by the ready, almost eager, manner in which the Iranian Government on a number
of occasions made vigorous complaints about what were in themselves trivial
incidents. A misunderstanding between a captain of one of His Majesty’s ships
and Colonel Bayendor, the Commander of the Iranian Navy, about an exchange
of calls, a trifling incident on board a merchant-vessel at Abadan, accusations that
British aeroplanes had flown over Iranian territory without having obtained prior
permission to do so, the unfortunate incident of the departing Iranian consul at
Bombay, all these were taken up by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in vehement
terms. And to descend to the ridiculous, complaints were even made by the
Ministry that the firemen of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company gave a military
salute and that the crew of the vice-consulate launch at Khorramshahr wore
uniforms of a type that is worn in colonies (be it noted that Europeans in Tehran
have been asked not to wear short white coats when dining with Iranian officials
in the summer, as they are regarded as “colonial ”).
11. To sum up the above in a brief conclusion : The vigorous representations
of Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen with regard to the unsatisfactory treatment
of British subjects, and more especially Indians, by the military, police and
customs authorities undoubtedly had their effect. A number of grievances were
remedied during the course of the year; there was a relative lack of new causes of
friction, and the general atmosphere sensibly improved. The big issues were
allowed to remain dormant, and even when His Majesty’s new Minister arrived in
Tehran in October, the Minister for Foreign Affairs showed no disposition to raise
with him any large question other than that of the Shatt-el-Arab. Nevertheless,
the Shah was apparently preparing to send M. Soheily to London in the hope that
he would obtain some success in Gulf matters, and it remained throughout the
vear strictly necessary to remember that the old cloud of suspicion of British
intentions still hung in the air and that the sensitiveness and susceptibilities of
the Iranians were still such that, though an inch might have been gained, it would
at no stage have needed much to make us lose an ell.
(2) Persian Gulf.
(a) Iranian Regulations regarding the Visits of Foreign Warships.
12. Agreement was reached with the Iranian Government early in the year
with regard to the application to the Persian Gulf Division of the Royal Navy
of the Iranian regulations concerning the visits of foreign warships, the chief
point of difference outstanding at the beginning of the year was that His
Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom desired that only local notification
should be given when one of His Majesty’s ships desired to visit Abadan for the