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promised a number of Deputies certain favours which he never performed; and
secondly, by the weakness of the Government resulting in its inability to solve
the transport and the food-supply problem. One of the members of the Adalat
party, Farajullah Bahrami, had been practically selected as Minister of the
Interior, but on the 2nd July everyone was surprised to hear that Seyyid Mehdi
harrukh, Governor-General of Kerman, had been appointed to that Ministry.
! his appointment angered a number of Deputies, including some who were not
members of the Adalat party, and also the Deputies from Kerman who had
quarrelled with Farrukh. Meanwhile, rumours of a quarrel between Sdheily and
his Minister of Justice, Ahy, concerning the latter’s departure as ambassador to
the Soviet Union helped to spread the general feeling that the Cabinet was on
its last legs. The number of candidates for the post of Prime Minister was
considerable. A group of Deputies proposed Mustafa Quli Bayat (Saham us
Sultan) as their candidate, but with little hope of success as Bayat has had little
experience in Government Office and would not command general respect.
Another group supported Ali Mansour, who was Prime Minister at the time of
the occupation last August and is now Governor-General at Meshed. Tadayyun
was also active, and went so far as to sound the Soviet Embassy as to their views
on his candidature; according to his own story the answer was that he was too
pro-British, but the Soviet Ambassador made no comment when I subsequently
spoke to him about Tadayyun as a possible candidate for ministerial office.
Qawam es Saltaneh (Ahmed Qawam) was perhaps the most serious candidate,
and there is no doubt that he had a considerable following, moreover, the Russians
appear to regard him as strong enough to ensure a stable Government. Bagher
Kazemy is also on the prowl In conversation with the Oriental Secretary on the
7th July he made a bitter personal attack on Soheily, accused him of neglecting
to tackle the vital problems of the country, and advocated an immediate change
of Government; one of his suggestions was that a Senate, on the lines laid down
in the Constitution, should at last be formed, or that at any rate a number of
eminent though aged elder statesmen, such as Mu’tamin ul Mulk, Hakim ul Mulk
and Mustashar ed Douleh, should be taken into the Government as ministers
without portfolio in order to give the Government that authority which is so
lacking in the present Administration. Finally, there is Seyyid Zia ed Din
labatabai, whom some Tehran politicians still regard as the one person who can
save the country from its present ills; one suggestion being that Qawam es
Saltaneh should form a Government to prepare the way for the Seyyid’s drastic
purge.
12. It was feared that when Seyyid Mehdi Farrukh was introduced to the
Majlis as the new Minister of the Interior there might be an interpellation which
would unseat Soheily. That, however, did not happen; the explanation being,
perhaps, that I was expected back in Tehran soon, and the word had gone out
that nothing drastic should be done until the British Minister arrived. Since
my arrival on the 13th July the Majlis crisis seems to have simmered down, for
reasons which are not very clear. One reason may be that there are so many
rival candidates and proposals. Soheily is no doubt playing one “ party ” in
the Majlis against another; and he seems to be giving in to the general clamour
against the unpopular Press Bill which would severely limit the freedom of the
Tehran newspaper-writers. It may also be that the Majlis Deputies are
themselves feeling a little insecure; talk of dissolution is in the air, and
Dr. Malekzadeh, a senior Deputy, expressed to one of my staff his horror at the
rumour which had reached him to the effect that Soheily had asked the Soviet
Ambassador whether the latter thought the Majlis ought to be dissolved;
Dr. Malekzadeh’s point being pot that the Majlis elections could not be reheld,
but that it was wrong for a Prime Minister to discuss such a step with a foreign
Power. The position, as I write, is that Soheily appears to be eontemplatino-
a reshuffle of Government posts, with the introduction of some new men. When
Ahy goes to Moscow, Soheily may bring in Tadayyun iji his place; though Ahy
shows little sign of preparing himself for departure, a fact which may be the
source of the rumour that he hopes himself to secure the premiership one of these
days. Meanwhile, rumours of a military coup sponsored by a few prominent
generals tend to increase the prevalent uneasiness.
13. By and large it may be said that Soheily has only survived because no
obvious successor was available, and that being so, neither the Shah nor the
Russian Embassy nor this legation wished to bring about a change. Meanwhile
the Deputies have earned much popular disapproval by their obstruction and
irresponsibility, and the Majlis might well have been dissolved had it not been
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