Coll 28/67 ‘Persia. Annual Reports, 1932–’ [‎289v] (578/644)

24
made an unpreeedently high contribution—thanks to the assistance ahorded y
British consular officers and British Consular Liaison Officers whose local
I knowledge, energy and powers of persuasion have been invaluable.
Locust Control.
108. Since 1943 was the third year of the current migratory cycle of the
Desert Locust and a serious influx of swarms into Persia was expected, tbji.
British, Soviet and Indian Governments lent every possible assistance to til
Persian Government, with a view to obviating emergency shipments oi food to
this country and also to hindering the mass reproduction of the insect which
threatened India and the U.S.S.R. .
109. A mission of Soviet entomologists (who had been m leisia sime
1941 under the provisions of the Persian-Soviet Anti-Locust Agreement) and a
British Locust Control Officer (Mr. O. B. Lean) co-operated with the 1 ersian
Ministry of Agriculture in perfecting as far as possible the Persian control
organisation, and successive releases of lorries for this organisation weie made
by the Anglo-American-Persian Road Transport Board. In addition, Lie
support of the Inter-departmental Committee on Locust C ontrol and of the
Minister of State Resident in the Middle East enabled Mr. Lean to secure very
o enerous assistance from the British military authorities. An Indian ca\alr\
regiment was placed at his disposal for scouting and eventual control opera
tions in Khuzistan, and when it transpired that the unusual weather conditions
of the winter of 1942-43 had confined the invading swarms to East Persia the
Indian army despatched several companies into Kerman Province, where they
did excellent work with Mr. Lean. Meanwhile, the Government of India had
despatched a representative to the Tehran International Locust Control Com
mittee (Dr. K. D. Baweja), whose first-hand information about the westward
movement of swarms from India and whose assistance ^n the forward planning
of the Persian campaign were of great value. The Soviet mission, for then-
part called forward an aeroplane fitted with apparatus for the destruction ot
locusts from the air by poison dust and after having installed similar apparatus
into five Persian aircraft they supervised effective operations by this method
in Khorassan, towards the end of the summer. In spite of the considerable
effort employed against them the locusts penetrated as far north as Meshed and
as far west as Hamadan district, but the damage to crops was insignificant.
110. In July the Persian Government called an international anti-locust
conference in Tehran (at the suggestion of the Anti-Locust Research Centre m
I ondon) at which it was generally agreed that preparations must be ma de m
the autumn of 1943 for a much more serious campaign in Persia m 1944
Consequently, a Soviet aerial control unit was established at Jiwani, a Royal
Air Force anti-locust flight at Bandar Abbas, and British military units at
both these centres. Large orders for a new lethal dust (with di-nitro-orthocresol
base) were placed in the United Kingdom and the United States. And y
November every preparation had been made for a devastating campaign against
the swarms which were expected to enter from India and Oman.
Ill The non-arrival of Desert Locusts in Persia (owing mainly to a
successful campaign in India during the summer of 1943) has been a source of
iustifiable disappointment to those who worked so hard to prepare for them,
because the success of such a mechanised campaign (an attack on and not a
defence against the pest) would have been epoch-making. However the
, preservation of the crops from locusts now is the most important thing, and the
experience gained from training the units concerned will undoubtedly be ot
value in future migratory cycles.