Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎579r] (1160/1237)

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tions, and on destroying their rights instead of protecting them. Lhe latest
article warns the officials that, as long as the workers’ rights have not been sa ^“
guarded or new agrarian reforms carried out, revolution and disorder cannot be
sUryed off and will grow greater instead of less.
^ 7. The local authorities in Tabriz now have about 1,500 unemployed men
working on the streets, cleaning ditches and planting trees, &c., the usual pav
being 5 or 6 rials per day. In addition, there are schemes afoot for helping small
craftsmen, such as stocking-makers, cobblers and leatherworkers, with small
advances of money and raw materials to tide them over their present difficulties.
The police had the idea of distributing a small dole to certain of the “ refugees
who do not benefit by any other scheme and are certainly not likely to be helped by
private charity here, but such a large and uncontrollable crowd collected that the
doors were kept locked and the wretched people sent empty away.
8. Local commerce and trade conditions are bad and show no improvement.
One factory An East India Company trading post. owner says he will be able to start a new textile industry in a few
months with the German machinery he received last year. I am told however,
that the important contract expected to be signed in Tehran between the Soviet
authorities and tw^o Tabriz leather factories remains unsigned after several
months of negotiations. One curious fact is that the large market m carpets
appears to continue brisk, although the export of carpets to Turkey and Switzer
land has temporarily been stopped by the British authorities m Bagdad, w n e
the export to New York remains comparatively small. Probably, some general
merchants, unable to use their liquid capital, are investing in carpets and moving
them to other supposedly safer parts of the country, or hoping to sell them o
German-occupied Europe later. The exodus of better-class families from a mi/,
to Tehran, Isfahan and other towns still continues on a lesser scale, and one still
sees lorries piled high with furniture and household effects leaving Azerbaijan
for the south. It is of no use telling officials and merchants that they are
encouraging disquiet and unrest in this way, and that the poor and working
classes will soon be the onlv ones left here, a prey to unemployment and possible
social revolution. In Persia the only sentiment, open and unashamed is everyone
for himself and the devil (in this case supposedly a Bolshevik outbreak oi the
German spring offensive) take the hindmost. t , ,
9. There is little new r s from the Kurdish area of Azerbaijan, except that a
meeting of about a dozen important Kurdish chieftains, including one hheikn
Abdulla, formerly a fugitive in Iraq, is reported to have taken pi ace recently in
Saui Bulagh. The brother of the chief rebel leader Mohamed Rashid Khan is
said to have been killed. Amir Aund, chief of the Dehbukri tribe has succeeded
in ousting the Kurdish farmendar of Mandoab from his post and installing one
of his own relations, in spite of the Governor-General s repeated warnings that
such action would not be tolerated. So little did he fear the consequences that he
came last week to Tabriz and has now gone to Tehran on a semi-official invitation.
Visitors from Rezaieh report the town entirely quiet since m} \isit in January,
although there are minor incidents in the villages, including attacks on Aimenidii
Christians The Governor-General last week paid a visit to Sarab, which haa
been the centre of much banditry and disorder until recently, and reports that all
classes of the inhabitants are almost overwhelmingly relieved at the restoration
of law and order in the district. According to him the “ Arbabs,” or village
landowners, generally represented as grinding down the poor, are being welcomed
back by their peasants after the taste which the latter have had of “ liberty.”
10. It is to be hoped that the peasants wall settle down m time to think
about proper sowing for the next harvest. In the Ariebil-Serab a rea the autumn ?
and winter sowings were admittedly much below r normal because of distuibed
conditions, but the local authorities say that in the rest oi Azeibaijan theie is
nothing to complain of on this score. However, such is not the impression I
gained at Rezaieh. and I have heard pessimistic accounts of short sowing from
other persons in Tabriz also. Local opinion is still strongly opposed to allowing
any surplus wheat to leave Azerbaijan for Tehran or any other part of Persia,
but I know that considerable quantities have recently left the Himmeh district
for the capital. On the other hand, the growers and exporters of locally produced
dried fruits are finding their stocks piling up in Tabriz and other centres with
no prospect of sale, and will soon be faced with ruin. Wool also is unsaleable,
and the new clip will shortly be here to worsen matters. Germany was tho
principal buyer before, with Russia a lesser outlet; neither are buying now,