Coll 28/9 ‘Persia; Internal affairs; Shah’s tours in Persia: general situation reports’ [‎60r] (130/1038)

3
* er faijai
Kls
ending tl®
becan |
fl pletiono!!
a ble parted
LDIlex tbepri
’ Persia, 1
‘people ton
ic principlr
i stoutly i
ing as ag«:
in ei
)ur years agt:
m somewki
eh actirit?, f
d elsewk
ilthoughtk
appear to I
idoeskiT
quality of I
ers
y acts, #1
d no longr
[ need, 0®
iussia, wk
ras strayed;
ere reals t
wr, thus to
led Euss® :
exion a i*
sver and®
rt of
h force; to
lijan
e become |
disposed t( '
gg iudicate
turned t* 1
; n: butf:
ide'liy^
e renio' al
f 0 , ,f:
Ifroif*
tHnr
1 T q n ute C iustiM t sT„c b e i tW g 8Uch aS iron and “■ Thislttit^
i. qu e justihed, since there can be no question about the superiority of those
^ho have rubbed shoulders with the Russians of the past. It will be well worth
patching how far the Iranian Government will succeed in replacing the exS
Russian culture and skills by the new Iranian culture, with its French veneer, and
the technical instruction now being given in Government schools by German
Less within the control of the Government is the dependence of Azerbaiian
on Russia for commercial prosperity. The natural flow of trade is northwards.
The south takes little from Azerbaijan and offers little. At present the foreign
trade of Russia is a Government monopoly, and carried on by official departments.
Iran has adopted a similar principle, and against the Russian trade agencies has
set up large monopolistic concerns. Trade, instead of flowing freely, has been
canalised and controlled as to volume. Hundreds of merchants, who formerly
gained a livelihood from the trade with Russia, each tending his small individual
streamlet, have been thrown out of business. Azerbaijan is poorer in consequence.
The people in trade in Azerbaijan deeply regret the elimination of the capitalists
in Russia. They bitterly resent the measures which the Iranian Government
has in its turn considered necessary in the interests of this country’s foreign
Hade. Azerbaijan finds itself in the unhappy position of being crushed between
the upper and the nether mill-stones. It is generally believed that bad times
will persist until trade again becomes free with Russia.
Apart from her own trade, Russia offers a route for trade between Iran
and Western Europe. In his annual report on the trade of Resht in 1878,
Mr. Consul Churchill, writing after Batoum had become Russian and speculating
on the effects of a railway connecting the Black Sea with the Caspian, expressed
the belief that trade xvith Europe would become much easier for Persia if only
the Russians would not place impediments in the way. “ As it is,” he went on,
“the difficulties thrown in the way of the transit of merchandise through the
Caucasus by the Russian customs authorities 'are so great that merchants in
general trading with this country prefer sending their goods through Bagdad
and Bushire.” If the recent conference about the Dardanelles showed that the
Bolsheviks have inherited at least certain principles of Tsarist policy, the Batoum
customs authorities have given proof that they too have inherited the attitude
of their predecessors towards the transit trade. If the ancient route through
Trebizond is modernised it will largely be because Iran feels the need of an
alternative route to the sea. The Julfa-Batoum railway is cheapest, and ought
to be the quickest, but Russia appears far from willing to facilitate a transit
trade in competition with her own. The question arose in a discussion which
I had with the manager of the National Bank about merchandise from England
lying at Trebizond. He was quite frank as to his preference for the Trebizond
route, despite its natural difficulties. He said that one could never trust the
Russians, that they were capable of raising obstacles to the passage of goods
without warning and without sufficient cause.
I have already reported a plan for improving railway services between
the U.S.S.R. and this country whereby loaded trucks will be allowed to cross the
frontier. This arrangement, it is thought, will soon come into force, but it
will not benefit the transit trade if goods are still to be liable, as at present, to
delay in the Batonm customs.
The Russian consular and trade officials form a large, but not a very
impressive, group. Some of them speak the local language, but hardly any have
even the slightest knowledge of European languages, so that they necessarily
remain aloof from other foreign consuls. They are hardly less completely
segregated from the Iranians, private as well as official. It is notorious that
the owner of a small shop at the entrance to the consulate-general is a police s Py>
and that all visits are reported. Visitors of Iranian nationality are geneially
asked later to explain their business to the police. .
(b) Turkey.—The people of Azerbaijan do not like the lurks. It is said
that although they have been glad on occasion to have Russian troops come m,
and might even welcome them again, they would be unitedun resisting the Lurks.
[865 b—5] B 2