Coll 28/67 ‘Persia. Annual Reports, 1932–’ [‎259v] (518/644)

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seized and despatched within a week to India; while a seventh, which had been
sunk, was raised and also taken to India. The eighth ship, which had been
blown up by its crew, was a total loss. Those members of the German and, Italian
crews who were at Bandar Shahpur were taken prisoner ; others, who were on
holiday in Northern Persia, made good their escape, with the exception of a few4
individuals whose arrest His Majesty’s Legation were able to secure. I he half-
dozen small gun-boats which constituted the Persian navy were either sunk or
captured. It had not been expected that any great show of resistance would be
made, owing to the low state of morale in the Persian armed forces, due to
underfeeding, underpayment, lack of training in modern warfare, and an almost
total absence of supply arrangements; but the rapid and complete demoralisation
of the Persian troops, even of those not engaged in operations, came as a general
surprise. Some divisions melted away completely, the officers leading the rout,
and the rank and file abandoning or selling their arms, and making their way
back to their villages.
9. During the night of August the 24th-25th His Majesty’s Minister,
assuming from indirect evidence in his instructions that hostilities were about to
begin, sent word to all British subjects in Tehran, who quickly assembled and
took refuge in the legation compounds at Gulhek and in the city. Here they were
joined by some nationals of a number of Allied States—Poles, Czechs, and
Greeks; and even by some neutrals and some German Jews who professed strong
pro-Ally sympathies. In all about 650 people were accommodated in the two
legations and their gardens, where they remained for a fortnight. On the
morning of the invasion the Shah sent for the British and Soviet representatives
and asked what the two Governments wanted. They replied by referring to the
text of the communications which they had, made to the Prime Minister that
, morning. It was obvious that the invasion had been a very great shock to the
\ Shah, who, as it seemed to them, had been ill-informed by his Ministers and had
1 been living in a world of unreality. The Shah compromised : on the one hand
he issued an absurd war communiqud—No. I, never to be followed by No. II;
At and on the other he dismissed Mr. Ali Mansour and appointed as Prime Minister
~ * V ^j; r Firoughi, almost the only statesman who was trusted completely for his
honesty. Soon afterwards (the 28th August) the Shah issued the order to cease
fire. Hostilities ceased on the British side also, but the Russians, who had
already done a great deal of senseless damage by bombing undefended targets,
kept up small-scale bombing for several days, first because the orders took a long-
while to reach their air units, and afterwards because a Russian aeroplane
which dropped pamphlets on Tehran was fired at by the Persians, who alleged
that they were firing at two of their own aeroplanes whose pilots had refused to
obey the order to cease fire.
10. Negotiations were at once entered into for the regularisation of the
situation by an exchange of letters. The main objects on the Allied side were to
fix the limits of occupation, to secure the delivery either to the British or Soviet
forces of all the members of the German community except the bona fide staff of
the German Legation and a few technicians not employed on communications or
| military establishments; and to ensure that the despatch of supplies across Persia
to Russia, including war material, would not be hindered. On their side. His
Majesty’s Government agreed to continue to pay the oil royalties and to facilitate
the supply to Persia of her economic requirements; and to halt the further
advance of their troops and, as soon as the military situation should permit, to
withdraw their forces from Persian territory. The first reply from the Persian
Government had, however, hardly been received when the Allied Governments
decided that they could not accept a solution under which the Axis Legations
would be free to carry on in Tehran activities against both Persia and the Allies.
Consequently, on the 6th September the British and Soviet representatives
addressed notes to the Minister for Foreign Affairs pointing out that the Axis
Legations and Governments had taken advantage of Allied forbearance in
not occupying Tehran to indulge in anti-Allied propaganda, and asking that
the German, Italian, Hungarian and Roumanian Legations should be removed at
the earliest possible moment. His Majesty’s Minister added to this an oral
request that the Bulgarian Legation should also be removed—-a request with
which the Soviet Ambassador could not associate himself officially, since the
Soviet and Bulgarian Governments were still in diplomatic relations with each
other, though he was able to inform the Persian Government that he regarded
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