Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎176r] (351/749)

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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERT^.QuF jUfl BRITANWIP MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
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2 -MAY 1944
April 19, 1944.
PERSfA.
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SECRET.
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ith th« C«m0im
for foreign Affalps
Section 1.
[E 2385/422/34]
Sir R. Bullard to ^fjpSfcden.—(Received IQth AyriV)
Copy No.
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(No. 147.)
HIS Majesty’s repres^lfative presents his compliments to His Majesty’s
Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and has the honour to transmit
herewith a copy of Intelligence Summary No. 13 for the period the 27th March
to the 2nd April, 1944, compiled by the military attache to this embassy.
Tehran, 3rd April, 1944.
Enclosure.
Military Attache's Intelligence Summary No. 13 for the Period
27th MarcJu~2nd April, 1944.
(Secret.)
ctfu* «/ 6*: - Persian A ffairs.
, Political.
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THE Majlis did not take long to signify their disapproval of the new
Cabinet, whose composition was given in Summary No. 12, paragraph 13. The
Prime Minister then invited the Deputies to furnish him with a list of thirty
persons acceptable to them from which he would select his Ministers. By
allowing that the Deputies might dictate to him the composition of his Cabinet
the Prime Minister has weakened his position, and even among the Deputies one
of the five parties which have been formed and the independents, who have joined
no party, profess to be averse to any such intervention by the Majlis. It is
understood that a good deal of the opposition of the /Deputies to the present
Cabinet is concentrated against Ibrahim Zand, the Minister for War. Dr. Ghani,
the Minister for Public Health, and General Riazi, the Minister for Education,
because it is believed that they were nominated by the Shah. Two of his selections
in the previous Cabinet, Nuri Isfandiari and Nasrullah Intizam, have already
been dropped. The opposition of the Deputies to these Ministers arises not so
much from objection to them personally as from resentment at the Shah’s inter
ference. There is a very strong feeling in the Majlis that the Shah's activities
must be confined within strictly constitutional bounds. Dr. Millspaugh, too, is
likely to come in for vigorous criticism
2. Five parties, or rather groups, since, with the exception of the Tudeh,
they are not political parties in the ordinary sense, have been formed in the
Majlis. They are the Democrats with 19 members, the Ittifaq-i-Milli with
13 members, the Tudeh with 8 members, the Mihan with 19 members, and the
Iran with 11 members. The last-named is composed entirely of Deputies
from Khorassan. These groups include 69 of the 108 Deputies elected up
to the 2nd April. Some Deputies who are likely to be influential in the Majlis,
notably Seyyid Zia-ed-Din Tabatabai, Seyyid Muhammad Sadiq Tabatabai,
Dr. Musaddiq and Ali Dashti, have not joined groups. There are still
twenty-eight Deputies to be elected, mostly from Azerbaijan and Fars. Of the
108 Deputies already elected, the certificates of election of eighty-three have been
accepted by the Majlis.
3. The Prime Minister announced the programme ol his Government as
collaboration with Persia’s allies on the basis of mutual respect for each other’s
rights and interests; strengthening of friendly relations with friendly and
neighbouring countries; re-establishment of public security and faithful
execution of the laws; measures to assure the provision of food and essential
needs of the population; measures to assure to peasants and the working classes
the essential minimum in food, housing, hygiene and education; administrative
reorganisation to associate the people more closely with the administration of
,J52—75]
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