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4. Various incidents which occurred during this period were cited by
Bayat’s opponents as evidence that he had gone over to the Soviet side. He was,
for instance, severely criticised for allowing the Irano-Soviet Cultural Society
to broadcast from .Radio Tehran a translation of an article in the Pravda
attacking Seyyid Zia-ud-Din Tabataba’i (the former Persian Prime Minister
who came back two years ago after 20 years’ exile in Palestine), and containing
the scarcely veiled calumny that he was the tool of the British. Much unfavour
able comment was also aroused when the Prime Minister held an official reception
to celebrate the 27th anniversary of the Red army and invited the diplomatic
corps to attend. A story that two of his Ministers attended a memorial ceremony
at the grave of the Communist, Dr. Irani, though subsequently denied by one of
them, gave ground for adverse criticism. In the matter of the press, too, Bayat
was considered, with some reason, to lean to the Soviet side. Nevertheless, though
he was inclined to truckle to the Russians in small matters there was no definite
evidence that he had given way on the oil or any other essential question. His
supporters in the Majlis in fact claimed that he had, by giving way on non-
essentials, succeeded in improving Perso-Soviet relations; and according to some
reports the Shah was inclined to agree with Bayat and to encourage him to
remain in office in spite of increasing opposition in the Majlis. In this His
Majesty was possibly influenced by the fact that in reply to a protest made some
weeks earlier about Soviet behaviour in the north, the Soviet Embassy sent the
Persian Government a conciliatory note disclaiming any intention to interfere
in Persia’s internal affairs.
5. Little serious business was transacted by the Majlis during this period.
In January a quarrel between two Deputies, one of whom accused the other of
using his position to gain commercial advantages for himself, led to the adoption
by the chamber of a Bill authorising the appointment of a committee of five
members to examine all accusations made in the press or Parliament against
individual Deputies. Two Bills tabled by the Minister of Health were passed:
one empowered the Ministry of Health to enforce health regulations previously
enforced by the Ministry of Interior, and the other concerned the reorganisation
of the Ministry of Health. New legislation tabled but not yet passed by the end
of March included a Bill for the restoration to their rightful owners of properties
confiscated from tribes and other landowners; two Bills for the development of
agriculture and the formation of agricultural councils; a new labour law; and a
Bill for the prohibition of the use or cultivation of opium.
6. There was a good deal of party activity and labour agitation during the
period under review. The Tudeh intensified their propaganda particularly in
the south. Their leaders indeed openly said that as their activities in the north
were attributed to Soviet instigation they intended in future to improve their
organisations in those parts of Persia not occupied by Soviet troops. They
therefore established a centre in Shiraz where they published two papers and
began an active campaign against those whom they believed, or professed to
believe, to be British agents, notably Qawam ul Mulk and Nasir Qashqai. In
Ahwaz, too, the arrival of a new Soviet consul was followed by a strike in the
local factory An East India Company trading post. . But it was in Isfahan and Yezd that the Tudeh made their most
determined efforts. Tudeh Deputies from Tehran visited Isfahan in January and
February to try to strengthen fheir domination over the local trades unions. In
this, however, in spite of the energetic support of the Soviet Consul, they were
remarkably unsuccessful. Anti-Tudeh interests, mostly mill-owners, succeeded
in setting up a rival trades union. After a period of unrest, with demonstrations
, and clashes between supporters of the rival parties, the local Persian authorities,
who handled the situation very well, succeeded in re-establishing order, and the
[upshot of it all was that the bulk of the workers declared themselves,’ at least
for the time being, definitely anti-Tudeh. At the end of March there was further
trouble and during an anti-Tudeh demonstration the crowd wrecked the Tudeh
offices. At Yezd, too, the Tudeh suffered a reverse when their agents were
attacked and driven out of the town by the crowd, who also set fire to the Tudeh
headquarters. The Azerbaijan branches of the Tudeh held their first congress
at Tabriz in January. This was followed by a Tudeh recruiting drive amono-
the townsfolk of Tabriz, the peasants and the Kurdish tribes. " In Hamadan
and Kermanshah, too, there was an attempt to gain adherents to the Tudeh, but
without great success.
7. In Tehran the general opinion was that the Tudeh had lost ground
ever since the demonstration of October last had revealed that the Tudeh was
not altogether a genuine Persian Left-wing movement but a political organisation
largely under Soviet control. When the Tudeh advertised a demonstration in
Tehran for the 2nd March, the Military Governor showed a bold front, and