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Coll 28/67 ‘Persia. Annual Reports, 1932–’ [‎294v] (588/644)

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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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10
behalf, and as it was a long time before the British press and the British Broad
casting Corporation began to give a reasonably balanced account of the dispute
M. Saed was not aware for many weeks of the extent to which his attitude had
the moral support of the British and American Governments; and m these
circumstances it was all the more creditable that he and his colleagues should
have stood up so well to Russian intimidation. The British and American
representations may, however, have served to prevent the Russians from resortm^H^
to even more violent measures. .
31 It was not till the 29th December that the Soviet Government replied,
through their embassy in London, to the representations of His Majesty’s
Government Their reply, an unsatisfactory document containing several gross
mis-statements of fact and a reference to Soviet public opinion which His
Majesty’s Government were probably not expected to take seriously, reproached
His Majesty’s Government with the <c unfavourable attitude ” they had adopted
in regard to the oil negotiations, and ended with an ominous reassertion of
M. Kavtaradze’s warning to M. Bayat that the oil law of the ^nd December
(described as a “ resolution ’ ’ unconstitutionally adopted) ‘ ‘ ought to be
reconsidered.”
Suggested Withdrawal of British Forces from Persia.
32 In connexion with the Soviet oil dispute, His Majesty”s Embassy
suo-o-ested to the Foreign Office that the possibility should be considered of
withdrawing British Forces, at least from Tehran, as soon as aid to Russia
was diverted from Persia. There were complications, e.g., the airangement to
send aviation spirit from Abadan to the Soviet Union until the middle of 1945
and the fact that the presence of the Royal Air Force in Tehran enabled the
British authorities concerned to maintain their connexion with the Persian Air
Force and aircraft factory An East India Company trading post. , to supply the necessary technical services for the
British Airways line to Tehran. On the other hand, withdrawal offered several
advantages : if the British evacuated Tehran, the Soviet authorities must either
do the same or expose themselves as less considerate than the British; the evacua
tion of Tehran by the foreign troops would in itself strengthen the Persian
Government; if the touchiness of the Soviet authorities was due in part to the
suspicion of British motives (as it probably was) an offer on our part to evacuate
Tehran, and perhaps other places, might help to calm them down, even if at
first they did attribute the offer to a wish to remove Soviet influence from the
capital.
Soviet Interests.
33. The post of Soviet Ambassador in Persia, which had been vacant several
months, was filled in January by M. Constantin Mikhailov, but he left 1 eisia in
May, ostensibly for medical treatment, and did not return. It is thought he
was removed in disgrace because the Persian Government refused to accept the
conditions attached to the offer of war material made by Marshal Stalin to the
Shah at the Tehran Conference. The Persian Prime Minister saw the ambassa
dor the day after the refusal was made and he found him looking ‘ ‘ like a man
condemned' to death,” yet maintaining that he was perfectly well. The British
and American Embassies found him cold and suspicious and did not regret
his departure. M. Mikhailov was succeeded by the former charge d’affaires,
M. Maximov, who is an old Persian hand and a clever intriguer, but is human,
has a sense of humour and can be teased into taking routine action. The change,
therefore, was for the better in spite of the difficult behaviour of the Soviet
Embassy regarding the Soviet Government’s oil dispute with Persia and regarding
the policy of the Anglo-Soviet-Persian censorship.
34. During the course of the year there were several scares regarding Soviet
troop movements in Persia, but these turned out to be routine replacements.
35. There is one aspect of British activities in Persia which may have
given the Russians reasonable cause for suspicion. The aerodromes at Mirjawa
and Zahedan were completed at a time when, as a result of the discontinuance
of the East Persia supply route, they were no longer needed for military aid
to Russia; and work on the aerodrome at Kerman was still continuing at the
end of the year. The Zahedan-Kerman and Zahedan-Meshed roads are still
being maintained, though they too are no longer needed for sending supplies
to the Soviet Union. It seems that the work begun on the aerodromes when
the Germans were in the Caucasus was continued with a view to their eventual
use as communication airfields on what is, in fact, the most direct route between
India and Europe. The Meshed road has been kept up as a potential route

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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–’ [‎294v] (588/644), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/3472A, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100056661168.0x0000bd> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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