مجموعة ٢٨ /٦٥ "بلاد فارس. العلاقات التجارية الفارسية-السوفيتية." [و‎‎١‎١‎١] (٤٨٢/٢٢٢)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITAN1 IC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
8346
' 91515 '
PERSIA. November 8 , 1935.
CONFIDENTIAL. Section 1.
[E 6615/146/34]
Viscount Chilston to Sir Samuel Hoare.—(Received November 8 .)
(No. 476 E.)
Sir, Moscow, October 28, 1935.
WITH reference to your despatch No. 529 of the 11 th October, transmitting
a copy of a report from His Majesty’s Minister at Tehran on the new Soviet-
Iranian Treaty of Commerce, I have the honour to inform you that the Soviet
press has published very little in the way of comment on this treaty.
2 . I see from paragraph iO of the monthly intelligence summary enclosed
in Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen’s despatch No. 397 of the 7th September that Pravda
was accused by the Iranian newspapers of being the origin of the curious message
published by the Messager de Teheran, to which those newspapers took such
exception. The official dementi by the Soviet Embassy appears to have been
justified, for in reporting the signature of the treaty, Pravda was at pains to
emphasise, at the expense of all truth and plausibility, that instrument’s supposed
character of friendly co-operation on an equal footing.
3. The Zarya Vostoka, a Tiflis newspaper, has published the following
details with regard to the factories and other enterprises the construction of
which was agreed to on the conclusion of the treaty :—
“ The representatives of Exportstroy have already concluded with the
Iranian Government a number of agreements regarding the construction of
commercial enterprises. Foremost among these is an agreement for the
construction in the neighbourhood of Tehran of a food-stuff combine, which
will include elevators to carry 65,000 tons of grain, mills to handle 300 tons
of flour per day, and bakeries to handle 100 tons of bread per day; as also
a macaroni factory to handle 10 tons per day, a composite fodder factory,
a 2,400 horse-power electrical station and engineering shops. The project
will be elaborated by the All-Union Trust for the Production of Alimentary
Machinery.
“ Exportstroy has also received an order for the construction, within
two years, of ten elevators of a capacity 16,000 tons each and another ten
of a capacity of 8,000 tons each. These are to be fitted with electric
generating plant and with machine shops. There is also an order for the
construction of five rice-cleaning and two wool-washing factories.
“ All these enterprises will be created by Soviet specialists from Soviet
materials and in Soviet works and factories.”
With regard to this last paragraph, and to the denial in the Iran that the factories
were to be erected by the Soviet Government, most reports in the Soviet press
have suggested that the entire work of erecting the plants would be entrusted
to Soviet specialists. It was, however, stated in the Moscow Daily News of the
28th October that Exportstroy, which would supervise the initial operations,
would train cadres from among Iranian workers for the construction and
operation of these enterprises; and the Journal de Moscou also, in an article
of the 18th October, suggested that Iranians might possibly be sent to the Soviet
Union for training, following the example of the Turks who took part in the
erection of the Kaisariyeh factory. There seems, however, little doubt that the
enterprises will in the main be Soviet built, whatever face-saving arrangements
are made for supervision by Iranian Government Departments and for the employ
ment of more or less unskilled Iranian labour.
4. The Moscow Daily News stated on the 14th October that negotiations
were proceeding for the construction of a textile combine of 25,000 spindles in
“ Memed ” (presumably a misprint for Meshed), and that the designs for this
had already been submitted to the Iranian Government.
5. I am sending copies of this despatch to His Majesty’s Minister at
Tehran and to the Department of Overseas Trade.
I have, &c.
CHILSTON.
[565 h—1]