Ext 5001/41 'PERSIA – INTERNAL (Miscellaneous despatches).' [‎11v] (22/248)

14
they are interested in their purchase. We shall probably receive the same reply
as that given in the case of the Northern installations, and in this event sale will
be carried out by public tender.
77. Railway Assets .—This question is likely to be a very thorny one because,
apart from the fact that we shall have to overcome the Persian claim that all
buildings should revert to them free, we are also handicapped by the absence of
any agreement regarding freight rates.
78. The railway administration entertain large hopes that a substantial
amount, in the neighbourhood of £7,700,000 will be paid to them in addition to
the sums we have spent to maintain the railways since 1942, but this hope is likelv
to be disappointed. At the end of the quarter, His Majesty’s Embassy were on
the point of addressing a note to the Persian Ministry of Foreign Affairs setting
out the lines on which it is suggested negotiations, both for the settlement of
freight rates and of payment for assets, shall be conducted.
79. American Assets .—The Americans offered for sale to the Persian
Government their fixed installations in the Northern Area but no reply had been
received by the end of the quarter. An agreement was reached between the
l nited States Embassy and the Persian Government by which the latter purchased
f>8 American locomotives, 1,350 wagons (including 277 oil tank cars) and surplus'
Vmerican railway stores to the value of $500,000. The purchase price was $10
million. The 277 oil tank cars in question are considered by the British and
American railway experts to be the minimum number, in addition to the 303 tank
cars already owned by the Persian State Railways, to ensure an adequate distri
bution of oil in Persia. This view is not shared by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Com
pany which estimates that a further 146 tank cars should be purchased. These
are available in Persia but they will be shipped elsewhere by the United States
authorities unless the Persian Government come to a very early decision to pav
dollars for them. r J
Press and Public Opinion.
80. Comment in the Persian press during the period was on well-established
lines—wdd or mischievous misinterpretations of foreign affairs and the actions
of the gieat powers; violent criticism of internal policy and of those who apply
it, without the offer of anything constructive.
81. Foreign interference in Persian affairs was a constant theme. The
toming elections aroused particular anxiety in this connexion : the Soviet strangle
hold on the northern provinces caused deep and articulate apprehension to the
Right-wing press, while its few remaining opponents countered with allusions
o the alleged interference of British officials (sometimes designated by name) in
the 1943 elections m Ears and Kermanshah. *
82. The military government of Tehran was abused as a recrudescence of
dictatorship— es pe ci ally by the Left-wing “ freedom front,” most of whose papers
it had suppressed. This muzzling of the pro-Russian press left the way almost
entirely clear for its opponents to attack the Russian policy in northerii Persia
and those elements (sc. the Tudeh party and its offshoots: the “Democrat”
party of Azerbaijan and the Kurdish-nationalist “ Kumala ” group) which sup
ported it. At the beginning of the period the Left-wing papers were opposing
the evacuation of foreign troops; but this opposition was damped down by the
publication m late July of an article in the Times in which evacuation was taken
tor granted, and extinguished by the appearance of the Bevin-Molotov corres-
Pi? oT™ 11 Molotov, though he appeared to be evading mention of
the 2nd March, agreed to evacuation within six months of the end of the war with
Japan. It may be said that Persians in general are waiting with hope rather
^March 06 t0 ^ whether the Rllssian withdrawal will be completed by the
. The Prartfo attack on Persia, the Khorassan mutiny, the more recent
visit of Kurdish nationalists to Baku and divers high-handed actions of the Red
army against the freedom of the individual (whether true or fabricated) have
xUrthei exasperated Persian opinion against Russian interference in the northern
provinces. Right-wing papers have, on the whole, been bold and outspoken
against Russia. F
84. America has come in for criticism for the first time since the' days when
the newly-arrived American troops laid themselves open to attack by their rather
tree and easy behaviour in Tehran. The storm aroused by the discovery that the
United btates Orovernment was not giving something for nothing is' described
below m the section headed “American Interests.”' The appearance of the
American Embassy s communique and the after-thought that American support