مجموعة ١١١/٢٨ "بلاد فارس. كرمانشاه - يوميّات سياسية." [و‎‎١‎١] (٧٥١/٢٢)

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Tfanuary* 26, 1942.
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Copy No. (j^
Consul Vaughan-Russell to Mr. Eden.—(Received January 26, 1942.)
(No. 18.)
HIS Majesty’s consul at Kermanshah presents his compliments to His
Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and has the honour to
transmit to him a copy of Kermanshah Diary for the month of December 1941.
Kermanshah, December 31, 1941.
Enclosure.
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Kermanshah Diary for the month of December 1941.
I .—Review of the General Situation.
THE situation here further improved during the month of December. There
has been less brigandage and the better state of security which has recently
prevailed has enabled merchandise and produce to circulate fairly freely through
out the district and has also made it possible for farmers to plough and sow in
districts which were considered unsafe last October and November.
2. In Kurdistan the situation has not changed appreciably during the past
month; General Shahbakhti’s very perfunctory effort—if it deserves to be called
an effort—to negotiate with the Kurds yielded no results. The attack of the
Kurds upon a British patrol on the 11th December and the Kurds’ more threaten
ing attitude towards the Persian garrison at Diwandere provided General
Shahbakhti with an excuse for abandoning any pretence of negotiating and for
attacking the Kurds. The latter were bombed on the 20th December, but this
activity yielded little in the way of results and the situation is now much the
same as it was at the end of November, except that the withdrawal of the Kurdish
rebels from Diwandere towards Sakkiz has relieved the pressure upon Sanandaj
(Senna).
3. During the month of December the economic situation deteriorated;
although wheat supplies are reported to be adequate for the needs of this district
until next year’s harvest is available, the sugar shortage has become more
noticeable and supplies of many commodities are getting increasingly scarce.
4. During December there has been no appreciable change to record in the
state of public feeling here. Discontent, caused by the increasing cost of living
among other things, tended to increase feeling against the Allies, but this
tendency was to some extent counteracted by the Russians’ successes and by the
British victory in Libya. The entry of the United States into the war on the side
of the Allies caused a brief sensation, but the favourable effect which this
momentous event might have been expected to exercise on local opinion was
neutralised by Japan’s spectacular successes in the Pacific. Public opinion here
is unable to grasp the magnitude or the implications of the war and remains as
pro-German as ever on the whole. British propaganda has not yet got into its
stride, but a start has been made. Radio broadcasting and portable cinemato
graph equipment with abundant supplies of films and of illustrated (Persian)
journals are long overdue and are still awaited.
[26—51] b