Coll 28/67 ‘Persia. Annual Reports, 1932–’ [‎61v] (122/644)

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129. In December His Majesty’s Government asked the Greek Government
to find some other country to protect their interests m 1 ersia owmg S
volume of work with which His Majesty’s Legation were already obliged to cope.
130. The ratifications of the Perso-Greek treaties of the 9th January, 1931,
were still not exchanged at the end of the year.
Czechoslovakia.
131. The Skoda works continued to receive orders from the Persian army,
and also engaged in the construction of various bridges m the Caspian provinces,
including the ill-fated bridge over the Sefid Rud, the foundations of which
were again washed away in September.
Switzerland.
132. M. Brunner, the counsellor of the Swiss Legation in Turkey, spent
a month in Tehran in the autumn negotiating a treaty of establishment. If js
understood that this treaty will shortly be signed in Switzerland. A commercial
treaty was also discussed, but little progress made.
A ustria.
133. The honorary Austrian consul, M. Ehlers, found himself in difficulties
with the authorities through administering the estate of a deceased Austrian
citizen without the intervention of the Persian courts, and was finally obliged
to make a payment of some 7,800 rials in order to satisfy various persons who
alleged that they had claims upon the estate.
134. The Persian Government engaged some Austrian forestry experts
during the year. In addition large numbers of Austrian workmen came to work
upon the railway.
Lithuania and other Countries.
135. The Lithuanian Minister in Moscow, M. Baltrusaitis, came to Tehran
in May to present his letters to the Shah as the first Lithuanian Minister
to Persia.
136. The ratifications of the treaties of Persia with Estonia of the
3rd October, 1931, and Finland of the 12th December, 1931, took place at
Moscow on the 21st February, 1933.
(D) International.
League of Nations.
137. The report of the committee of enquiry into the traffic in women and
children in the East (see paragraph 107 of 1932 report) caused an outburst in
the Persian press, who proclaimed with one accord that Persian w^omen were
patterns of modesty and quite unlike the notoriously frail women of the West.
The reason for the outburst was not apparent, as the observations of the
committee upon such matters as prostitution and temporary marriages were of
the mildest description. The views of the press were not shared by the Ministry
for Foreign Affairs, who considered the report perfectly harmless.
138. In December the press inveighed violently against the proposals made
in certain quarters for changes in the statutes of the League designed to give
a preponderating influence to the great Powers. The Minister for Foreign
Affairs made a statement in the Majlis on the 24th December expressing the firm
opposition of the Persian Government to these proposals.
Disarmament Conference.
139. On the 20th May the Shah sent a reply to President Roosevelt agreeing
cordially with the tenets and purposes of his circular message about disarmament
of the 16th May.
140. In the course of the discussions in the Technical Committee on
Effectives, the Persian delegate explained that the figure of 72,000 men returned
by his Government under “ formations organised on a military basis ” (see