Ext 5001/41 'PERSIA – INTERNAL (Miscellaneous despatches).' [‎66r] (131/248)

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PROPERTY OF HISTOlTINNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
PERSIA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
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With tha
Und®** Stat«
for For. Affairs
January 27, 1944.
Section 2.
Copy No. 122
Sir R. Bullard to Mr. Eden.—{Received 21 th January)
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(No. 10 . Confidential.)
Sir, Tehran, 1th January, 1944.
SINCE my despatch No. 462 of the 23rd November 1943 , all other events
from that date to' the end of the year were overshadowed by the Tehran
Conference, which excited the interest and flattered the vanity of the Persian
people, who, had they been permitted, would have exhibited their feelings in
demonstrations, receptions and gifts. The repression of these manifestations
under pressure of secrecy caused some slight resentment, but this was quickly
dissipated when the Anglo-Russian-American declaration about Persia was
issued.
2. An indiscretion by Tehran radio during the passage of Mr. Eden and
Mr. Hull through Tehran in October, which revealed their presence to the world,
and might possibly have endangered their safety on their way to Moscow, led to
the adoption of the severest measures of secrecy on the occasion of the Tehran
Conference. Until Mr. Churchill and Mr. Roosevelt were about to arrive no hint
was given to the Persian Government. We did not know that some days earlier
the Soviet Charge d’Affaires, on instructions from Moscow, had informed the
Prime Minister that it was proposed to hold a conference in Tehran and had
asked the Prime Minister how this would be viewed by the Persian Government—
a question to which he received an enthusiastic approval. He even informed
M. Soheily (though he subsequently induced the Prime Minister to deny this in
the press) that M. Stalin would be present. The Shah is said to have been
greatly flattered by this “courtesy” on the part of Stalin. Security for the
British and Soviet representatives was easy to ensure, since the two missions,
each of which is surrounded by a high wall, are separated only by a street, which
was blocked so as to cover the connecting-gates. To ensure the safety of
Mr. Roosevelt was more difficult, as the American Legation is half a mile away
from the Soviet Embassy, in which, it being the senior of the three missions, the
meetings of the conference were necessarily held. After first having quarters
arranged for him in His Majesty’s Legation and then establishing himself in
the American Legation, Mr. Roosevelt finally moved into a house in the compound
of the Soviet Embassy. He revealed to the press in the United States that he
did this on being informed by Marshal Stalin that there was a plot against the
lives of the three chief representatives and that there were in Tehran over.
100 German agents. The publication of this report annoyed the Persian Govern
ment, who rightly considered that it gave a false picture of conditions in their
capital. They published a dementi, in which they rightly pointed out that during
the conference none of the Allied authorities had said anything about the plot
to the Persian authorities, who had, in fact, been* thanked by them for the
security measures taken. His Majesty’s Legation are convinced that, if the tale
was not made up to induce the President to leave his own mission for that of the
Soviets, it was invented by the Soviet security authorities to show that it is not
only the British -security authorities who can discover plots. The latter, it is
true, discovered not only a plot but the plotters as well, but you can’t always have
everything.
3. At the Moscow Conference the British and American representatives
had made a great effort to secure agreement on the issue of a declaration which
would reassure Persia as to the intentions of the Allies, but it was wrecked by
the determined opposition of the Soviet delegates. This became known to the
Shah and the Prime Minister apparently through the Americans here, who,
however, also stated that in the course of the conference the Russians had made
known their intention to.remove their troops after the war in accordance with
the terms of the Anglo-Soviet-Persian Treaty of January 1942. On the
29th November, when Mr. Eden called on the Prime Minister, M. Soheily stated
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