Coll 28/67 ‘Persia. Annual Reports, 1932–’ [‎309r] (619/644)

7
that the return to Persia of deportees should in principle be opposed on grounds
of the inadequacy of the security staff remaining in Persia, of the proximity of
neutral countries, and of the prevailing unemployment of Europeans in the
country. At an inter-departmental meeting which took place in June, attended
by a representative of the Combined Intelligence Centre, this decision was con
firmed on the further grounds that even after the end of the Japanese war the
/■^resettlement of some hundreds of Axis sympathisers, having now particularly
no cause to be favourably disposed towards the British, would not be in the
British interest, and that there was no reason to offer an opportunity to past
enemies and potential troublemakers to resume their commercial and social
relations in Persia so soon after the war. It was therefore decided to recom
mend that all internees should be returned to their countries of origin, exception
to be made only on compelling compassionate grounds. It has already been
decided that none of the twelve Europeans who remained interned in Persia
should be allowed to stay in the country.
34. In accordance with this policy, when at the cessation of hostilities
the control exercised by Combined Intelligence Centre, Iraq and Persia, over
entries into Persia was surrendered on the 18th August, the Persian Government
were informed that there was no objection on the part of the British authorities
to the return to Persia of certain individuals named; and it appeared to be
understood from this by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs that it was not desirable
to readmit, without reference to His Majesty’s Embassy, any person who had
been deported.
35. A large number of applications were received for permission for
internees to return to Persia from their relatives in the country, and especially
from the Government of India, who were not unnaturally anxious to be rid of
their guests as soon as possible, and who forwarded a list of eighty-nine applicants
for readmission at the end of the year. Although the hardship involved in
some cases was fully realised, a strict interpretation of the policy of disposal
by repatriation was upheld, and very few applications have been granted. It
was decided, e.g., that no special exception, such as was at one time recommended
by the Government of India, should be made in favour of Jews, nor of persons
with family interests in Persia, but that these people also should be required to
return to their countries of origin first. A number of cases remained under
consideration at the end of the year.
Persian Internees.
36. In reply to a violent press campaign for the release of Persian internees,
touched off by an incident, copiously misreported, which occurred in the intern
ment camp in Tehran when an inspecting British officer was involved in an
altercation with one of the internees, and to a parliamentary interpellation by
Dr. Musaddiq, which was feebly answered by the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
demanding by what right Persians had been arrested by the Allies and were
still detained, the full story of the activities of the Persian fifth column was
issued to the international press in February, and His Majesty’s Ambassador
made a written protest to the Minister regarding the disloyalty of press and
Government. It became necessary, also, in order to make sure that the odium
should be fairly shared by the Soviet authorities, who appeared to be only too
anxious to take advantage of the Persian tendency to attack only the British
authorities, to publish a further notice in the press emphasising the collabora
tion of the Russians in the arrest and detention of suspects. The Soviet security
authorities took several of the more important internees to Resht “ for interroga
tion,” and there is good evidence from several sources that they used the
opportunity to try to recruit them for the cause of Russia.
37. Numbers of internees were released by agreement with the Russians
in the following months. On the 25th May, however, the Soviet Embassy proposed
the immediate release of all remaining internees, and their security authorities
at once informed the Persian police that only the British continued to prevent
such a consummation. When His Majesty’s Ambassador was authorised a few
days later to inform the Persian Government that there was now no British
objection to the release of all except those who had been arrested for their
connexion with the Japanese, the Soviet Embassy availed themselves of the
opportunity to publish in the press a statement to the effect that the Soviet
authorities were not opposed to the release of any of the internees.