Coll 28/97(2) ‘Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎75r] (149/252)

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4« The Press.
Attacks in the Press on the ruling class have been increasingly
bitter of late and one paper suggested that a wholesale purge is what the
nation needs* In conjunction with these attacks there has been strongly
"^■orded criticism of the courtiers surrounding the Shah, it being suggested
that they exercise undesirable influence on him. Criticism of the Majlis
also continues* One of the right wing papers last week openly urged
Persia to abandon neutrality and declare its opposition to communism
as being incompatible with the religion and beliefs of the country* The
Tudch party organ however continues to impute all Persia’s misfortunes
to the designs of the Anglo-Saxon bloc, and another left wing paper said
that if war comes America cannot help Persia in time, and she should
therefore consolidate her friendship with Russia.
MILITARY.
Military Review.
On 12th December military reviews wore held in most of the
ki.fjO 31, garrison towns of Persia in commemoration of the successful
conclusion of the Army’s operations in Azerbaijan two years ago* This
date has now come to be adopted more or less as ’Amy day’. In Tehran a
review of all troops of the Central Garrison, as well as the Military
Academy and pre-cadet school, and contingents of the Police, Gendarmerie,
air Force and Navy, was held before H.I.M.The Shah. Members of the
Diplomatic Corps and Service Attaches were invited to attend the review,
but no Soviet representatives were observed to be present* The review
took the same form as last year, the march past of troops lasting about
2 hours* Unlike last year arrangements for the seating of invited guests
and for the.control of the crowd were good, though in the event, perhaps
owing to the cold andcloudy weather, the crowd was far smaller than last
year. The march past was considprably better than last year and in the
case of a number of units v/as definitely good. The turn out of vehicles
and guns v/as certainly an improvement on last year. No new equipment
v/as in evidencewith the exception of some jeeps recently arrived from the
U.S.A. The contingent of the Central Military Police v/as stronger than
last year, there being nine companies on foot, each about 100 strong, one
company in jeeps, and two or possibly three, in lorries. Their total
strength v/as about 150^. They were smartly turned out and those on foo J
? marched well. A number of Tehran nev/spapers took the opportunity to
attack the Amy, perhaps out of fear of its influence again becoming too
, great.
6* Persian Military Academy.
The length of the course at the Persi?.n Military Academy has
recently been increased from 2 years to 3 years. Cadets will be -
commissioned at the end of the second year but will remain as 2nd
Lieutenants at the Academy for another year. Whereas the first two
years will be devoted mainly to academic military instruction, during the
third year it is intended that the young officer shall, as far as possible,
actually carry out the duties of an oificer and receive instruction in
the command and administration of a platoon or equivalent sub-unit. In
this way it is hoped that in future young officers will join their active
units fit in every way to assume the command they are given. The
lengthening of the course means that the active part of the Army will lose
one year’s output of officers of whom there is already a considerable
shortage. In fact, the actual strength of officers in the Persian Army
at the present time is only about of establishment. The decision in
this case to forego a year*s output in an effort to produce a better
trained young officer is, however, probably a wise one which will pay in
the long run. Concurrently, efforts are being made to increase the
/number. . •