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6 . Mr. Trott was also told that the Shah now supplies 80 per cent, of
the army s requirements, not only grain, rice, etc., but also boots and
clothing. Ihe Royal fortune must be accumulating like a snowball.
7. The two army leaders who appear to have the most influence now
are Sepahbod Ahmad Agha and Amanullah Mirza, but the focus of any
discontent was more likely to be somebody outside Persia, perhaps
Taqizadeh, who, as I have reported elsewhere, has given various indications
of his intention not to return to Persia.
8 . To the accidental mind it would appear inevitable that after years
of oppression such as is recorded above, the Persian worm would eventually
turn, but it must be remembered that this oppression is not a new thing in
Persia, and I think it moist unlikely that there will be any open resistance
to the regime at least until after the death of the Shah. Money is being
poured out everywhere on schemes which are providing employment; the
army is well fed and the officers, at least, well treated; and the peasants on
His Majesty’s estates are probably better off than they were previously,
while other peasants are not much worse off than they have been for many
years past. The discontent of the few remaining big landowners is unlikely
to find open expression. It must be remembered that they probably
obtained their ancestral lands by much the same methods as the Shah, but,
of course, on a smaller scale. Finally, I believe there exists among the
working classes a certain real pride in the Shah’s achievements. The
necessities of life cost them more, but they are conscious of being ruled
by a strong man, and it is preferable to be oppressed by a strong man than
by petty landowners lording it under a weak Shah.
(136) 1
Despatch from His Majesty’s Minister, Tehran, to the Foreign Office,
London, No. 562-E., dated the 26th December 1934.
With reference to Sir R. H. Hoare’s despatch No. 590, of December
20th, 1933 [S. No. (4)], I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a
translation of a law, passed by the Majlis on December 15th, amending the
Income Tax Law of November 20th 1933.
2. By the new law, the minimum of taxable income is reduced from
five thousand rials (sixty-two pounds and ten shillings approximately) to
two thousand four hundred rials (thirty pounds) per annum. The rates
of taxes on incomes between ifive thousand rials and twenty thousand rials
are somewhat reduced, but those on incomes between fifty thousand rials
and one hundred thousand rials are increased by one half of one per cent.
3. Employees on small salaries and even domestic servants will now
become liable to income tax for the first time. In their urgent need of
funds the Persian authorities are inflicting very heavy burdens on the
poorer classes, who have long had to bear the burnt off the heavy taxes on
sugar and tea (to provide funds for railway construction), and who have
recently been saddled with additional charges in respect of the tax on
paraffin and the increased cosE of cotton piece goods resulting from the
recent establishment of an import monopoly of those goods.
4. I am sending copies of this despatch, with its enclosure, to the
Department of Overseas Trade No. 0. T. D.-215, to the Foreign Secretary
to the Government of India No. 257 and to His Majesty’s Ambassador at
Baghdad No. 92. j
162(C) F&PD.