Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎189v] (378/749)

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5. The town of Semnan was seriously damaged by floods resulting from (
the heavy rains of the past week. According to the press the extent of the ^
damage amounted to 20 million rials. Floods also washed out a section of the i
railway between Tehran and Bandar Shahi at a point about 160 kilometres from ' g
Tehran. The line was out of action for about 40 hours, but was repaired by the
night of the 17th/l 8th May.
Appointments — Civil. M
6. Fazlullah ITatemi to be Farmandar of Semnan.
' Persian Forces. 1
A r my. (
7. The Minister for War has tabled three Bills. The first deals with c
offences of officials engaged on recruiting. It proposes that any official who
refrains from recruiting those liable to conscription or recruits those not liable t
shall be condemned to from two to five years’ solitary confinement. If he accepts f
bribes in any form he shall be fined five times the value of the bribe and be classed c
as an armed bandit and suffer the punishment to which such criminals are liable.
The second Bill forbids officers and other ranks of the army to form political
parties or to take part in any political activities. The third Bill aims at speeding
up the work of military courts. It proposes that in future ordinary military
courts shall consist of a president and two members only and military courts of
appeal of a president and five members.
8. In reply to a question in the Majlis the Minister for War stated that
a sum of 51 million tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. of last year’s allotments to divisions had not yet
been accounted for. In a subsequent letter to the press he modified this statement
by saying'that the greater part of the amount had already been accounted for.
A ppointments — Military.
9. —(i) Sarhang Najaf Quli Abbasi to be assistant to the Military Governor
of Tehran. ?
(ii) Sartip Mehdavi to be Director of the 'Supply Department of the
Army, vice Sartip Diba, resigned.
Internal Security.
Fars.
10. His Majesty’s Consul in Fars reports that the atmosphere in Fars has
been greatly improved by Nasir Qashgai’s visit to Shiraz to call on the Acting
Governor-General and on the consul and by the surrender to the British security
authorities of the absconding Deputy, Naubakht. To the consul Nasir was lavish
with assurances that his only desire was to act in accordance with British wishes.
It may be assumed that he qualified that statement in his own mind with the
proviso that British wishes should not conflict with his own interests. For the
moment those are to show what a power for order he can be in Fars, and it must
be said that the migration of the Qashgai is proceeding with less than the usual
lawlessness. In spite of the fact that Nasir did not come in to Shiraz during the
Shah s visit, his two brothers, Muhammad Hussein and Khosrow, were treated
with marked friendliness and sympathy by the Shah and accompanied him to
Tehran.
11. The Khamseh tribes, bullied, neglected, hungry, ragged and leaderless,
are not so orderly as the Qashgai and have been guilty of some petty robbery and
brigandage. These tiibes have, in fact, suffered much more in recent years than
the Qashgai and have, on the whole, behaved with restraint.
12. There has been some fighting on a small scale between the khans of
Hiat Daud and those of Liravi. I athullah Khan of Hiat Daud had been deputed
by the Government to collect from Liravi grain which the khans had failed to
deliver to Government, and this presumably led to the hostilities.
Russian A ffairs.
^ a a 5f remon y Soviet Embassy the charge d’affaires presented
ntty medals to Persian motor drivers working for the Russian transport services
in token of Soviet gratitude for their services. In his address the charge