Coll 28/21 ‘Persia; Azerbaijan; Persia-Russian & Persia-Turkish Frontier.’ [‎363r] (725/845)

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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
PERSIA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
March 4, 1935.
Section 7.
[E 1442/292/34]
No. 1.
Tabriz Diary No. \ for January 1935. (Section B 1.) —(Communicated by His
Majesty s Consul, Tabriz; Deceived March 4.)
\ J ^yU„;-iT er -vi Political Situation.—Poverty and discontent are general in
hv f 6 ? ( ? mmon man measures, in the long run, all policies and regimes
ment nf ° n p 1S V w * ona } and security. So measured, the Govern-
inh n rLr d J?>, PerSla n as faile l d ’ 811106 the lot of 90 P er cent - or more of the
frnm ^ h haS T 1 ^ een bettered - Th at of many has become worse
CnvlZZ n° UbtleSS T tSld , e Persia11 contro1 ’ but a ve ry sternly paternal
ecoZm^ nLh Vlng / ,nd n el ' ta a en 10 reCaSt the lives spiritual, political and
fn hrZl jf t. countr >;'. has . dra w n on itself more blame than the mere failure
in b " g b ha P? le ^ tlmes justifies. In the town of Tabriz itself, and possibly
talk °i f tbe larger centres, the smarter uniforms, the better streets, the
Ik of officials do inspire the feeling that Persia is getting somewhere, and new
actones are taking over some of the unemployed carpet-weavers; but the
we f g hiVL aS P ° 0r aS r er * f T lm g i8 ’ S ° [t is said ’ that the Shah started
well, but has gone aside oft the highroad of the country’s welfare in pursuit of
personal whimsies. The expenditure of so much money on the railway is resented
heie pei haps more bitterly than elsewhere, since the trade of Tabriz must
progressively suffer fi-om the opening of these new routes. It is no exaggeration
to say that people are literally groaning under the burden of taxation, often
made heaviei than it ought to be by the arbitrary assessments of harsh officials
especially in the matter of income tax. The town is full of the murmurinffs of
discontent discreet but definite; there is no leader to give it direction, nor is
? n y^k e ly to arise so long as the strong hand of Government is felt everywhere*
but there is gloomy talk of what may ensue “ if anything happens ” to the Shah
before his son is strong enough to follow on. There is in Tabriz a public garden
which was a cemetery before the present regime converted it to be a setting for
a statue of the Shah. This promises to be the Bastille of Tabriz if, unhappily
the Central Government loses control. The common people are represented as
muttering to each other that they will one day make a cemetery of it again.
I here must be a section of the people which realises, however, that all this
pessimism may well be dissipated by the return of better trade conditions by
the gradual realisation of the immense benefits conferred on the country as a
whole by better roads and the establishment of security, and the Crown Prince’s
arrival at manhood within the lifetime of his father, as there is every reason to
hope and expect that he will do; but, as usual with strong men, the Shah has
pinned a great deal more than is safe, so far as Azerbaiian at any rate is
concerned, on his own life.
Friday prayer in the mosques here has been abandoned except by some of the
lesser mullahs. It is stated that the Government has authorised one muitahid
to resume. J
^* Elections. Of twenty Deputies to the Majlis from Azerbaijan, it is
thought that thirteen or fourteen of those now sitting are viewed with favour in
Tehran and that they will accordingly be returned. Four vacancies have been
caused by death, three in Tabriz and one in Ardabil. At least one Deputy has
fallen into disgrace, viz., Mirza Jawad Khan Imami (Khoi and Shapur) Who is
now proved to have been implicated, so the report runs, in the Tehran sugar
scandal, the details of which are doubtless better known to His Majesty’s
Legation than to this consulate. The names of Mirza Murtaza Khan Amin,
Hadji Muhammad Riza Ardabili, Hadji Nizamet Dowlah, Ma azizi Sultan
have been mentioned as definitely in the running for the Tabriz vacancies, with
Mirza Jaafar Ishpha-hani, mentioned in Tabriz despatch No. 6 to His Majesty’s
Legation, as a doubtful starter. J " '
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