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further allegations about a third, and so on. None of the accused were persons
of note, and it is probable that their real offence was criticism of the regime.
168. Flimsy as the proceedings were by western standards, they were an
advance upon methods employed in the past. From the moment that the light of
court procedure and press publicity shone upon the affair, everyone felt that
nothing like a death or a life sentence would be passed; for when anything really
dangerous is afoot, the most silent methods are used.
169. The reorganisation of provincial administration, mentioned
in paragraph 248 of the annual report for 1937, began to come into
operation, but by the end of the year it could not be said to have
been entirely put into effect. The new system divides the country
into ten divisions (“ Ustans ”), which are sub-divided into an aggregate
of forty-nine departments (“ Shahristans ”). Further sub-divisions, in
descending order, are the district (“ Bakhsh ”), the sub-district (“ Dehistan ”),
and the township (“ Qasabeh ”) or village (“ Deh ”). The official in charge of
the division (“ Ustandar ”) was designed by the law to be peripatetic, without
fixed seat of Government, more or less an inspector. The ruler of the department
(the “ Farmandar ”) obviously corresponded closely with the previous Provincial
Governor. It has not yet been possible to make a general test of how the relations
between Ustandar and Farmandar are turning out in practice, for reports vary.
In places where there was previously a Governorate-General, the Governor-
General has usually become the Farmandar of the “home” Shahristan, and
again has usually, but not always, retained his subordinate office in the old
Governorate-General, and therefore probably also the very direct subordination
of his authority to that of the Ustandar. Where a Farmandar is the heir of a
provincial Governor, who previously had no intermediary between himself and
the Ministry of Interior, but is now grouped as one of a number of Farmandars
in an Ustan, his relations with the Ustandar are not yet so clear. And in several
cases Ustandars have not yet been appointed, so that everything, except in name,
must be moving much as before.
170. Another innovation of the new system is the introduction of a
Shahristan Council under the Farmandar’s presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. , composed of the heads of
all Government departments in the unit, and a Bakhsh Council, containing not
only the corresponding heads of departments, but elected representatives of
landowners and cultivators. If the existence of these councils leads to more local
co-operation among the provincial representatives of various ministries, who
hitherto have referred even the most trivial matters back to their principals in
Tehran, a very welcome reform will have been effected. At present there is no
general evidence that this has occurred. Shahristan and Bakhsh Councils have
not yet everywhere been formed, and, where they have, they are not yet recorded
to have effected much, except in the outlying Shahristans of the Ustan, whose
centre is Shiraz. One of the principal duties provided for them, that of
concerting measures for agricultural reform, has in only one region (Kermanshah)
been reported to have received much attention.
171. It cannot be said that any striking new turn was taken during 1938 as
regards the planned economic development of the country. The administrative
system remained in a state of transition; the exploitation of mineral wealth
continued to be planned, but no notable project was undertaken; further regula
tions for dealing with agriculture were issued, but no remarkable change in
existing conditions was reported. The process of commercial jugglery that rules
the economic system continued as before, but the machine seemed to jog along
somehow without giving serious signs of breaking down. No ideas of retrench
ment resulted from the achievement of the Transiranian Railway; on the
contrary, the Government immediately set to work allotting contracts for the
Tabriz line. The cost of living continued to rise slowly, and the authorities
turned their attention to one of the gravest aspects of this problem by bringing in
legislation (not enforced by the end of the year) to control rents; but no unusual
destitution seems to have occurred, and the effect of controlling rents, though it
may bring relief to a section of the population that is hard pressed and deserves
it, will be offset by the fact that, with the currency so artificially valued and so
precarious in stability, the purchase of foreign exchange virtually impossible, and
commerce so susceptible to arbitrary control, real estate is the one attractive form