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take place is doubtful, loo many political forces seem to be interesting them-
selves in the coming struggle for a free election to be possible. In the first
place, the present Deputies themselves are all anxious to retain their lucrative
employment. Secondly, the Prime Minister will no doubt have views, and he
seems at present to be making various combinations with wealthy Tehranis and
others to secure Deputies who will support him. Thirdly, the Minister of the
^Interior, if ever one is appointed, will no doubt endeavour to assert himself, as
r he is in charge of the actual election arrangements. The Shah, too, is expected
to have something to say, on similar lines, though not so drastically, as his father
used to have. The mullas seem to be coming out into the open about the elections,
and the Russians, though they say they are neutral and would never dream of
supporting the Tudeh party or any other, are popularly supposed to be intending
to rig the elections in the northern areas which are in their occupation. This
legation is, of course, subjected to constant pressure to do something about the
elections in the south in order to counter-balance the efforts of the Russians.
Finally, the army and the gendarmerie may have something to do with the
conduct of the elections, especially in the provinces.
11 . Mention should also be made of clear signs that both the Shah and
the Government are proposing to do something for the religious elements in this
I country. The mullas at Qum appear to have extracted some promises from the
Shah during his journey to Isfahan. They appear to have asked for greater
freedom for preachers, for the election of five prominent mujtahids to the next
Majlis (a provision which existed in the original Constitution but was ignored
by Reza Shah), and for the presence of a sort of religious adviser at the Court.
Certain negotiations with mujtahids of Kerbels and Najaf seem to be in progress,
and one of them, Haji Agha Hussein Qummi, made a pilgrimage from NajaT
where he had been throughout the last reign, to Meshed. Four of the oldest
mujtahids of Tehran are making overtures to this legation and will no doubt
endeavour to get back some of the power, not only religious but also political,
of which Reza Shah deprived them so thoroughly. The main pretext for this
movement for a return to religion seems to be that it is necessary to counteract
the godless influence which is threatening the country from the north. It remains
to be seen whether the disadvantages of a reactionary return to political jobbery
by venal mullahs will not outweigh the advantages of an anti-Bolshevik drive
with the slogan “ Back to Islam ! ”
12 . The Shah has continued to take an active interest in all the affairs of
his realm, in fact, he is continually criticised for taking too much interest in some
of them, especially in the army, which he is determined to regard as his own
special preserve. He also continues to spend the large sums of money which his
father has accumulated, and though a great deal goes in charity and good works,
the fact that no accounts are ever published lends colour to the stories that
circulate about His Majesty giving substantial subsidies to newspaper writers
and to Deputies in the Majlis. Hussein Ala has continued to perform the
functions of an eloquent and punctilious Minister of Court, though he finds it
difficult to restmin the bad influences around the Shah, so difficult that it is
doubtful whether he ever tries to do so. A Royal visit to Isfahan early in June
was a great success and is to be the precursor of other visits to provincial centres.
It seems to have been marred only by the failure of the Queen to arouse the
enthusiasm of the women of Isfahan; she did talk to a group of Persian ladies,
but only for a few minutes, and through an interpreter. The Shah has been trying
during the last few days to exercise an influence over foreign politics by means
of press interviews. He has sent to the American people a Fourth of July
message, which in the stress it lays upon the love of independence which Persia
shares with America might be interpreted by the malevolent in an anti-British
sense; and in talking to the representatives of the Daily Herald and the Daily
Chronicle he made statements which His Majesty’s Legation fortunafely
succeeded in inducing him to delete or amend. One of these statements implied
that the sterling-rial rate of exchange was unfair to Persia; another that Great
Britain had failed to carry out clause 7 (the economic clause) of the Tripartite
Treaty; while a third claimed that, next to the four Great Powers, no country
had done so much as Persia for the Allied cause. It is significant that the Shah
did not consult the Prime Minister about these interviews; he may have spoken
to the Minister for Foreign Affairs on the subject—knowing that M. Saed would
not be a severe critic. The personal extravagance of the Court is causing friends
of the Pahlevi dynasty much anxiety. It will be remembered that of the
700 million rials which the late Shah transferred to his son, the latter “ lent ”
400 to the State. Of the 300 million which he retained, the Shah has given away
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