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Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎107v] (214/749)

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The record is made up of 1 file (373 folios). It was created in 9 Jul 1942-8 Feb 1946. 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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the Government and of acting under the influence of political agitators. This
called forth a rejoinder which reminded Dr. Millspaugh that he had authority
to speak on financial questions only, that the political aspect was not his concern,
and that the salaries of two of the many foreign advisers now being paid by the
Government would go far towards improving conditions for the engineers and
professors.
6 . The following newspapers which had been suppressed have now been
allowed to reappear : Mehr i Iran, Bakhtar, Iqdam, Keikan, Kurshid i Iran.
Economic.
7. The terms of the Soviet-Persian Financial Agreement have now been
published. The following are the principal points :—
{a) Persia is obliged to supply the Soviet authorities with all rials they need
(over and above the rials realised by the Soviet authorities through
the sale of goods) up to a limit of the equivalent of 15-5 million
dollars in any period of six months (at present rate of exchange =
500 million rials).
(5) Rials will be obtained by the Soviet authorities on demand against the
equivalent in United States dollars, credited to the Persian Govern
ment in blocked account in Moscow.
(c) At the end of each calendar half-year the balance of the blocked dollars
account in Moscow will be converted as to 60 per cent, into gold. Silver
may be substituted for gold by mutual agreement.
{d) The official dollar/rial rate of exchange will be observed; the price of
gold and silver will be calculated at official prices ruling in the United
States.
8 . The text of a reciprocal trade agreement between the United States and
Persia, which was signed at Washington on the 8 th April, has been published
in the press.
9. Dr. Millspaugh has issued a regulation—No. 5—declaring that the
import and sale of the following commodities will in future be a Government
monopoly : All cotton goods, sacking and wrapping material, soap and candles,
electric light bulbs, insulated wire, paints of all sorts, chemical products of all
sorts, motor vehicles, spare parts and accessories, tyres and tubes, lamps, lamp
chimneys and wicks, china-ware, glass-ware and kitchen utensils, pins and needles,
paper, typewriters and their accessories, ink, coal, firewood, charcoal, all threads.
Stocks of these commodities at present in the country or on order from abroad
must be declared to the Government.
10. Dr. Millspaugh has presented to the Majlis a Bill for the revision of
the Income-Tax Law. His proposals include : Exemption of incomes of
6,000 rials per annum and, in addition, of certain specified amounts for depen
dants; exemption of interest on savings and of an amount equivalent to nine
times the amount of interest received from savings or deposit accounts or Govern
ment bonds; exemption of the salaries of Government employees and peasants;
a tax on taxable incomes, after deducting the amount exempted^pf 2 per cent, on
incomes up to 10,000 rials per annum, increasing to 80 per cent, on incomes
exceeding 500,000 rials per annum. The effect would be to lighten the burden
of taxation on small incomes while heavily increasing that on large incomes. The
maximum tax now imposed is 20 per cent.
11. The Bill, as was to be expected, has aroused the violent opposition of
the rich, who have launched a campaign in the press and among venal Deputies
to oppose it. It is criticised on the grounds that it will stifle enterprise and
production, and that the Government has not the machinery to enforce it. It has
been welcomed by the lower classes.
12 . Dr. Millspaugh has instructed all Ministries that, since revenue is
insufficient to meet expenditure, a reduction of 15 per cent, to 25 per cent, must
be made in the number of Government employees. Until this reduction has been
put into effect no salaries will be paid.
13. The Bill referred to in Summary No. 13/43, p aragraph 3, for the issue
of tax-free Treasury bonds to the value of 500 million rials and for an increase
in the amount of coinage of low denomination from 54J million rials to 75 million
rials is now being debated in the Majlis. The increase of small coinage has been
approved.
14. The Anglo-1 rani an Oil Company has agreed that royalties to be paid
to the Persian Government should be fixed at £4 million per annum until the end
of the war.

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Content

Copies of intelligence summaries prepared on a weekly basis by the Military Attaché at the British Legation in Tehran, and received by the 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. via the Foreign Office. The file’s contents follow on chronologically from Coll 28/97(1) ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries.’ (IOR/L/PS/12/3503). The summaries cover a broad range of information relating to wartime conditions in Iran: the activities of the Iranian government, including political instabilities, the resignation and appointment of governments and government ministers; the financial situation in Iran, including the reappointment in 1942 and subsequent economic policies of Arthur Chester Millspaugh, who was recruited to organise the government’s finances; internal security in Iran, including increasing political unrest in the north of the country (specifically in Azerbaijan) brought about by a growing Soviet presence, wartime propaganda, and the activities of the Tudeh Party of Iran; concerns over wheat production and supply, including reports of food shortages and famine conditions in 1942/43; the Iran military, including its movements, activities and appointments; foreign interests (primarily USA, British, and Soviet); reports of the numbers of Polish refugees in camps in Tehran, Isfahan and Ahwaz [Ahvāz].

The file contains a single item in French, being a copy of the declaration of the Congrès National d’Azerbaidjan (Nation Congress of Azerbaijan, f 359).

Extent and format
1 file (373 folios)
Arrangement

The file’s contents are arranged in approximate chronological order, from the front to the rear of the file.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 375; 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.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎107v] (214/749), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/3504, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100058863217.0x000011> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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