Coll 28/97 ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries’ [‎312v] (624/749)

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Khorasan.
6. The first meeting of Seyyid Zia’s Iradeh-i-Milli party was staged to
take place in Meshed on the 22nd July. During the early morning of that day
Soviet soldiers, accompanied by Persian police, arrested about seventeen members
of the working committee of the party, including the brother of Seyyid Zia.
Their houses were searched and all documents relating to the party were^
confiscated. They are at present believed to be in custody at the Soviet Military™
Headquarters.
A zarbaijan.
7. Hatim, one of the Shahsevan chiefs, is reported to have been released
by the Russians, though Amir Aslan is still in their custody.
8. An unconfirmed report states that several thousand people, including
Armenians and Assyrians, attempted to emigrate into the U.S.S.R. They did
not receive permits and after some days of hardship at Julfa returned to their
homes.
British Interests.
9. Major-General W. A. K. Fraser, C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O., M.V.O., M.C.,
left Tehran on the 26th July for the United Kingdom on relinquishing the
appointment of British Military Attache.
Russian Interests.
10. Of recent weeks the Russians, foreseeing perhaps stronger demands
from Persia and her late Allies for evacuation, have intensified their efforts to
produce administrative chaos in the zones occupied by themselves and to ensure
in the event of their departure before the next elections take place, that only a
Government completely subservient to themselves shall come into power. The
anti-British tone of the Russian-controlled press has become more violent. They
have openly threatened prominent politicians and public men with their grave
displeasure unless they would obey their orders. They have boasted that & now
victory in Europe has been achieved they are free to turn their attention to Asia
and to arrange things there to their satisfaction. Some of them have openly
stated that Stalin will never give up Persia nor the Red army evacuate it to
allow it to become a hotbed of intrigue by imperialists directed against the Soviet
Lmon. they have egged on toughs of the Tudeh party to usurp the functions of
government in Azarbaijan and the Caspian provinces, where they have forbidden
the export of wheat or rice and have even taken cash deposits from drivers of
Pei sum Government trucks leaving those areas on Persian Government business.
The\ ha\e forced the drivers to carry a spare driver, who must be provided from
the ranks of the unemployed under Tudeh control. They utilise time allotted bv
the Persian Government radio for their Cultural Society to broadcast its own
propaganda directed against their Persian political opponents, who are dubbed
reactionaries, Fascists and imperialists. They oppose the lifting of the Tripartite
censorship lest the truth about their activities in Persia should leak out to the
outside world On a recent occasion they made so bold as to use their soldiery
m the British-controlled area of Khorramshahr to search the house of two
suspects borne property was removed and the two suspects were later arrested
by the Persian authorities as the result of pressure brought to bear bv^the
Russians on the Persian Government in Tehran. ’
11. The Russian trade union delegation has completed a tour of the
Caspian provinces and is shortly to leave for Tabriz. The Russian press and the
Russian-controlled Persian press has devoted much space to the wonderful
i eception given to them, and the spontaneous welcome shown by the 250 000
Tudeh members in Persia. A conservative estimate of' the total industrial
population of Persia is 150,000, and by no means all of these are members of the
Tudeh party, though many are daily being forced into joining by exclusion
unless possessed of a Tudeh membership card, from the utilisation of nublic
transport facilities and even the weekly visit to the public bath.