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Coll 28/67 ‘Persia. Annual Reports, 1932–’ [‎40r] (79/644)

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The record is made up of 1 file (320 folios). It was created in 6 Dec 1933-27 Mar 1947. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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77
to the general revenue of the country, and it has already been made manifest that
it will not be realised without a rise in prices, which must particularly affect the
poorer classes of the population.
437. It was not until the 22nd June that ratifications were exchanged in
Moscow, but that did not prevent the sugar and match agreements from coming
f to force as soon as they were concluded. Import licences, within the quotas laid
wn in the treaty, were also issued to the Soviet Trade organisations as from
the 1st January.
438. These organisations were overhauled and centralised as the result of
the treaty. Owing to the fact that the Russian sugar (as well as the matches)
was to be delivered to the Persian Customs at the port of entry, there was no
further need for Persakhar, which consequently disappeared. Sharq, the general
trading concern, for which Persian officialdom harboured a particular loathing
as the very embodiment of Soviet economic oppression, has also been done away
with. A clean sweep seems to have been made of inland agencies in Isfahan,
Shiraz and Kerman, the intention being to supply these towns from Tehran,
Bushire and Bandar Abbas respectively. Kermanshah is also to be controlled
from Hamadan, as the result of the great restriction, imposed by means of the
quota system, on imports via Bagdad, including all the sugar, tea and matches.
Bureauperse (transport), Intourist (travel), Persaznaft (oil), Perskhlop (cotton)
and Exportmachine (machinery) have retained their separate entities, but they
are now under the direct control of Torgpred, the Soviet commercial repre
sentative, who has his headquarters in Tehran and branch offices in provincial
towns such as Tabriz and Sistan.
439. The hopefulness with which the Persians conducted the negotiations
which ended with the ratification of the commercial treaty with Soviet Russia
was certainly not improved by the failure of the Russians to honour the under
takings, into which they had entered in the early days of the trade monopoly,
to export Persian products to the value of their imports before the end of 1931.
Their continued failure to do so, and the growing disparity between their imports
and their exports, rendered relations all the more strained as month followed
month in 1932, without Torgpred showing any honest desire to adjust accounts.
It was this lack of goodwill, possibly more than the actual deficit in the
commercial exchanges between the two countries (amounting to 25 million odd
rials, or roughly £250,000, for the nineteen months ending the 22nd September,
1932), which so enraged and embittered the Persians.
440. During the course of an interview which took place at the end of
September, the Minister of Court informed His Majesty’s Minister that, during
his own illness, the Soviet Ambassador and his subordinates had conducted a
vigorous propaganda, intended to convince the Persian Government and the
commercial community generally that, in the present disastrous economic state
of the country, the Soviet Government could not deliver the imports which they
were bound to deliver unless the transactions were financed by the Persian
Government, and they had apparently been so far successful that the Prime
Minister, Minister of Finance and others had given some vague endorsement to
this astounding thesis. The result was that on his Highness’s return to work
he had to act with considerable energy. In fact, he told the Soviet representatives
that, whatever his colleagues might have said, not one rial of credit would be
granted by the Persian Government in order to relieve the Soviet Government
of their obligations. His Highness went on to say that one of his preoccupations
when negotiating the commercial treaty had been lest the Soviet Government, by
one means or another, should manage to evade their obligations to import. Such
a development would, of course, be absolutely disastrous to the normal economic
life of the country, but at the time he had found no means of definitely guarding
against it. He had now found himself confronted with this danger, and he had
little doubt that the Soviet authorities were seeking to place him in the unpleasant
dilemma of having to choose between a shortage of imports, with all the odium
that would attach to the Government, and accepting financial responsibility for
them, which would strengthen the economic and political position of the Soviets.
He had told the Soviet representatives precisely what he though of their bare
faced attempt to have it both ways, and had then arranged a meeting with

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Content

Annual reports for Persia [Iran] produced by staff at the British Legation in Tehran. The reports were sent to the Foreign Office by HM’s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary A diplomatic representative who ranks below an ambassador. The term can be shortened to 'envoy'. at Tehran (from 1943, Ambassador to Iran). The reports cover the following years: 1932 (ff 2-50); 1933 (ff 51-98); 1934 (ff 99-128); 1935 (ff 129-165); 1936 (ff 166-195); 1937 (ff 196-227); 1938 (ff 228-249); 1939 (ff 250-251); 1940 (ff 252-257); 1941 (ff 258-266); 1942 (ff 267-277); 1943 (ff 278-289); 1944 (ff 290-306); 1945 (ff 307-317); 1946 (ff 318-320).

The reports for 1932 to 1938 are comprehensive in nature (each containing their own table of contents), and cover: an introductory statement on affairs in Persia, with a focus on the Shah’s programme of modernisation across the country; an overview of foreign relations between Persia and other nations, including with the United Kingdom, British India, and Iraq; Persia’s involvement in international conventions and agreements, for example the League of Nations and the Slave Traffic Convention; British interests in or associated with Persia, including Bahrain and Bahrainis resident in Persia, the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. at Bushire, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Imperial Bank of Persia, and the Imperial and International Communications Company; political affairs in Persia, including court and officials, majlis, tribes and security; economic affairs in Persia (government finances and budgets, trade, industry, agriculture, opium production); communications (aviation, railways, roads); consular matters; military matters (army, navy, air force).

Reports from 1939 to 1946 are briefer in nature, Reports from 1941 onwards focusing on the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Persia, and the role of United States advisors in the Persian Government’s administration.

The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.

Extent and format
1 file (320 folios)
Arrangement

The file’s reports are arranged in chronological order from the front to the rear of the file. Each report for the years 1932-1938 begins with a table of contents referring to that report’s own printed pagination sequence.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 321; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.

The file contains one foliation anomaly, f 308A

Pagination: Each of the reports included in the file has its own printed pagination system, commencing at 1 on the first page of the report.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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Coll 28/67 ‘Persia. Annual Reports, 1932–’ [‎40r] (79/644), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/3472A, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100056661166.0x000050> [accessed 23 April 2024]

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