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(d) That the Persian-American Trading Corporation be granted the
exclusive foreign representation of the Iran Trading Corporation for
the sale of Persian products and the purchase of its monopolised
imports.
(e) That the 50 per cent, participation of the Persian-American Trading
Corporation in the Iran Trading Corporation confer upon it the
^ right to appoint half the board of directors and control the technical
services of the Iran Trading Corporation.
464. Subsequently gum and silk were withdraw from the list of
the proposed export monopolies, owing, apparently, to Russian pressure.
Teymourtache, on the other hand, wished to add opium and carpets to the list.
Regarding the latter, it had apparently not been decided before the end of the
year whether this monopoly would best be handled by the Iran Trading
Corporation or by a syndicate of old-established carpet exporters led by the
Oriental Carpet Manufacturers (Limited), a firm which is nominally British, but
actually Franco-Swiss, with a strong Levantine flavour.
465. Dr. Friedlieb left Persia in May with a seventy-five-day option, on
behalf of the Persia-American Trading Corporation, to participate in the Iran
Trading Corporation on the terms outlined above. This option was allowed to
lapse, but Dr. Friedlieb returned to Tehran in November with a galaxy of
American business men, representing the firms to which he proposed to confide
the operation of the monopolies to be secured, and which were, it seems, expected
to put up a large part of the 500,000 dollars required to buy a half share in the
Iran Trading Corporation, viz. : General Motors (all motor vehicles); Goodrich
(tyres); American Machine and Foundry (Limited) (tobacco machinery); Charles
P. Porter (Incorporated) (furs); Sayer and Co. (Incorporated) (casings); Hills
Brothers (dried fruits).
466. Negotiations were forthwith renewed on the basis of Dr. Fried!ieb’s
original proposals, with which Teymourtache was understood to be in agreement.
It remained, however, for the American business men involved to make a study
of local conditions and recommend participation or abstention to their principals,
while it took their leader time to re-establish contacts in political and commercial
circles. The Persian Government’s difference of opinion with Soviet Russia,
furthermore, culminating as it did in a boycott of Russian commercial and
transport organisations, obviously required careful handling. On the 24th
December the Minister of Court withdrew, or was withdrawn, from the political
arena, and it seemed as if many of the children of his busy imagination might
follow him in his retirement.
Company Registration Law.
467. Following on representations made by His Majesty’s Legation, the
Persian Government submitted a Bill to the Majlis, which was passed on the
17th March, reducing the registration tax imposed on shipping and air transport
companies to a quarter, and on land transport companies to a third, of the usual
scale (see, in this connexion, paragraph 375 of the 1931 report).
Anglo-Persian Commercial Treaty.
468. There was no resumption of negotiations for this treaty.
(C) Industry.
General.
469. The year was notable for the materialisation of various industrial
schemes and for a revulsion of feeling against German machinery. This was
largely due to the German press campaign against the Shah, which offended
Persian national sentiment, but also to the growing realisation that British
machinery—now within Persian means as the result of the fall in the value of
sterling—was distinctly preferable to German.
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