Coll 28/97(1) ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries.’ [‎231r] (461/807)

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(*) Not printed.
8 . United States Interests.
Structural steel of all sorts has been ordered for Iran from the Bethlehem
Steel Corporation, of America. The price is stated to be just under $1 million.
Soviet Interests.
Soon after the signing of the Irano-Soviet Commercial Treaty, twenty
persons imprisoned on charges of communism, &c., were released and ninety-two
others connected with Russia have had their sentences substantially reduced. The
press, however, did not indicate any connexion between the treaty and this act
of clemency, nor did it mention the nature of the offences of which the prisoners
had been found guilty.
10. Polish Interests.
For reasons of economy the Polish Consulates at Bagdad and Kabul are
being closed down. The Polish Legation at Tehran is, however, being retained.
11. Italian Interests.
An Italian journalist, David Massimo, special correspondent of the news
paper Gazette del Pofulo, of Turin, recently arrived in Tehran. During the
Spanish war he was attached to General Franco’s staff as a war correspondent.
Massimo is despatching telegrams in Italian to his news editor attacking Allied
policy in Iraq and Iran. Much of what he sends is quoted by the Berlin broadcast
in Persian. He is frequently in the company of Renato Giardini, first secretary
of the Italian Legation, and an Italian suspect named Gabella, a tennis
professional. Whilst in Iraq, Massimo was detained by the police for enquiry.
In one of his telegrams Massimo accuses the censorship authorities at Haifa
of writing facetious notes in letters opened in the course of their duty and quotes
two cases, one an Italian woman’s letter and one Dutch. Massimo intends visiting
/^Afghanistan in the near future. His Italian passport number is 618008, issued
at Rome on the 29th January, 1940.
12. German Interests.
(i) Extracts from the German White Paper No. 2 on the causes leading
up to the war, pp. 162-163, proof No. 245, are given as an appendix to this
summary^ 1 )
(ii) According to a reliable report from the German Legation itself, there
are 1,700 Germans resident in Iran. A number of Czechs and about sixty-five
Austrians living in Iran have refused to register at the German Legation.
Threats are being used to compel them to register.
(iii) German travellers complain greatly of the inexplicable delays caused
to them in Russia. It now takes an average of six days to reach Baku from
Germany. A party of seventy Iranian students destined for Germany have been
held up in Bandar Pahlavi for days awaiting accommodation on the Russian
railways. These students on return are to be employed in the Kerej blast-furnaces.
(iv) An official from the German Ministry of Industry, Herr Waltei; Jack
Graewer, has recently arrived on a special mission. It is said that he intends
visiting Kabul.
(v) Two agricultural experts have recently arrived in Tehran at the instance
of the German Minister to discuss the possibility of cultivating the castor-oil
plant in Iran. The German Government is stated to have opened substantial
credits for this purpose. Given a favourable climate and weather, it is considered
possible that the first harvest of castor oil could be made in six to eight months'
time.
(vi) Negotiations are in progress for the exchange of 20,000 tons of rice for
guns and ammunition from Germany.
(vii) Major Graf von Spee, from General Headquarters in Germany, recently
visited Tehran on a special mission. He has returned to Berlin via Russia.