Coll 28/39(2) ‘Persia. Printed Correspondence, 1937–’ [‎9v] (18/320)

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6. As far as can be ascertained, those members of the old leading families
who survive, Qajar and Bakhtiari, now live quietly but peacefully in and
around Isfahan, where most of them still have extensive estates.
They are not allowed, most of them, to go to Tehran or move about much,
nor can they see foreigners. A scion of the Bakhtiari Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. family is now
studying at the Stuart Memorial College (now called the Dabiristan Adab).
Prince Sarem-ed-Dowleh, “ the matricide ”, has assumed the cloak of middle-
class respectability by taking the post of managing director of a company
which has just been formed to erect and operate a paper mill, but he is care
ful to avoid contact with foreigners, even with the English missionaries,
who can see most people.
7. The Bakhtiari tribes are now said to be more or less settled, except in
the remoter parts of their country. A traveller from Ahwaz, however, who
came through Bakhtiari to Isfahan this summer said that he saw a goodly
number of tribesmen carrying fire-arms. Nearer Isfahan, on the other hand,
disarmament among the villages seems to be so complete now that even the
leopards know that they have a sporting chance against any single man they
may meet, for the Church Missionary Society’s hospital here has had a number
of cases of wounds from such encounters. In Isfahan itself guns, allegedly
confiscated from the Bakhtiari tribes, appear to be obtainable by Iranians
from the military without great difficulty, and there does not seem to be much
restriction on game shooting by Iranians.
8. Some effort seems to be put forth by the authorities to encourage the
Julfa Armenians to participate in the industrial boom and form a company of
their own. But they say that they are still the object of discrimination in
practice, and that the Government is doing its best to limit the teaching of
the Armenian language in their own schools.
9. The wave of anti-Semitism which swept over many parts of Iran
recently seems to have passed completely, if it did not entirely miss, Isfahan,
for the Jewish community here, which consists almost wholly of Iranian
Jews and, with one or two notable exceptions, is poor rather than rich,
does not appear to suffer under any special disabilities at the moment.
10. Foreigners in general are treated with much less suspicion and dis
trust than in some other parts of Iran, and it is possible for a private individual
to mix in local society. The Soviet consul-general, M. Atabekoff, is a member
both of the Iranian club in Isfahan and of the Armenian club in Julfa, having
been invited to join the Iranian club by the Governor of Isfahan. He
can invite Iranians to his house, provided that the Governor be of the party,
and receives as many as fifty or sixty on the occasion of his national day.
Both the Imperial Bank and the Church Missionary Society are regarded
with respect and friendliness, and in the case of the mission a good deal of
help, both official and unofficial, is given to its activities. On the whole, the
British community here enjoys a better position than in towns such as Ker-
manshah and Hamadan. The German community, too, though divided
against itself by personal likes and dislikes, also seems to enjoy Iranian favour.
It is probable that this greater degree of favour displayed towards foreigners
in general is due, in part, at any rate, to the enlightenment of the Governor,
who has realised that Iran can, and does, benefit from their activities. The
position which certain individuals have won for themselves in the eyes of
Iranians here has also helped to cause a favourable view to be taken of their
compatriots.
11. Isfahan is not a town which enjoys any special favour in the eyes of
the Shah—the only time he came here, some years ago now, he spent
the night outside the town—and the feeling is reciprocated by the Isfahanis.
Nevertheless the activities of the Zill-es-Sultan and his large family and
of the many Bakhtiari khans are not for that reason remembered with
any pleasure. The Isfahani would probably like nothing better than
to be left alone to work, but government in Iran, as it grows more experienced
and elaborate, enters more and more deeply into the every day life of the peo
ple and, from he point of view of the average man, its nuisance value tends
to outgrow any other value it may have had in protecting him from the