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Coll 28/67 ‘Persia. Annual Reports, 1932–’ [‎82r] (163/644)

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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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03
For this other explanations had to he found. The most probable was that there
had been^ some sort of a plot (or that the Shah thought there had been a plot)
between Teymourtache and the Soviet Government, possibly with the object of
setting up a republic with Teymourtache at its head when the Shah died. The
mere possibility that Teymourtache aspired to be more than the most powerful of
Ministers*would be sufficient to wipe all other considerations from the mind of a
ruler whose only fear was that he might die before his son was old enough to
succeed him on the throne without an upheaval.
413. If this suspicion did not exist already, it must inevitably have been
created by an article entitled “ Dropping the Pilot,” which appeared in the
Times of the 9th January. This article stated that the Shah was growing old
and was in poor health; the question of a regency must in the circumstances
have often occupied his thoughts, and he must have concluded that his young son
would stand little chance with a man like Teymourtache, ambitious and
unscrupulous, at the head of affairs.
414. For about a fortnight before this article reached Tehran there had
been persistent rumours that the Shah had received an appeal for mercy from the
Valiahd, who was at school with Teymourtache’s son in Switzerland, and had
decided to pardon Teymourtache and exile him to his estates in Khorasan. The
rumours stopped soon afterwards, and the Minister of War, who himself was
later to fall a victim of the Shah’s suspicion, believed that this article had sealed
Teymourtache’s fate.
415. The trial took place on the 16th and 17th March before the court
for the trial of Government servants. Teymourtache’s leading counsel,
Shariatzadeh, was, according to his own story, “ obliged to withdraw from the
defence ’ ’ a few days beforehand. The proceedings took place in camera. The
prisoner was condemned to three years’ solitary confinement and the restitution
of a sum of 200,000 rials on account of a bribery charge, and concurrently to
two years’ correctional imprisonment and the restitution of sums of 385,020 rials
and £1,712 on account of embezzlement (presumably irregular transactions with
the National Bank). The bribery charge was said to have some connexion with
the sale of shares in the Kevir Khourian Company, formed for the exploitation
of the Semnan oil-field. Shariatzadeh, who is a reputable lawyer, maintained
that the charges were pure fabrications, but this seems unlikely. Whether
fabrications or not, they were not the real cause of Teymourtache’s punishment.
416. Teymourtache was tried again in June on a charge of having accepted
a bribe of <£9,000 and 200,000 rials from Haji Mirza Habibullah Khan Amin
(Amin-ut-Tujjar), the holder of the Opium Monopoly Concession, as a reward for
his help in securing the concession. The Haji was simultaneously accused of
offering the bribe and defrauding the Opium Monopoly of 300,000 rials,
feymourtache maintained that the sum in question, which was said to have
changed hands as the result of a fictitious operation in exchange, was not a bribe
but a loan, which he needed in view of his heavy debts and equally heavy expenses.
He was, however, found guilty, and condemned to five years’ solitary imprison
ment and to the restitution of the sums received. The Haji was found guilty of
offering the bribe, but acquitted on the other charges. He received six months’
correctional imprisonment, but contrived to avoid serving his sentence.
417. Teymourtache did not apparently feel it worth his while to appeal
against any of his sentences.
418. Even before his downfall Teymourtache’s health was known to be
precarious, and, apart from this, it was taken for granted by the public that he
would never leave prison alive. Rumours that he was dead were therefore
constantly cropping up even before he really died, which was on the 3rd October.
There is no reason to suppose that the Shah did more than assist the course of
nature, but he seems to have done this fairly effectively, by forbidding during
Teymourtache’s last illness the visits by members of his" family, which had
previously been allowed, and by removing all the furniture, even "including the
bed, from the sick man’s cell. An official communique announced that he" had
died of angina pectoris.

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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–’ [‎82r] (163/644), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/3472A, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100056661166.0x0000a4> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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