Coll 28/97(1) ‘Persia. Diaries. Tehran Intelligence Summaries.’ [‎259r] (517/807)

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(viii) The British Military Attache, on behalf of the foreign military
attaches in Tehran, applied in writing to the Minister of War for permission
for them to be present otiicially at the promotion ceremony of the Officers’ College
in the presence of H.I.M. the Shah. Permission was refused, as, it was stated,
the ceremony was one entirely connected with the internal affairs of the country.
(ix) Sarlashgar (Major-General) Ahmed Muini, G.O.C. IV Division
(Military Attache’s Personalities, No. 174, and Foreign Office Personalities,
No. 128), has been sent on a special mission to Berlin.
(4) Iranian Air Force.
(i) On the 23rd September one of the three Air Speed Oxford machines
crashed on landing at the Doshantappeh aerodrome. H.I.M. the Shah has given
orders that it must be repaired within three months.
(ii) Reference Intelligence Summary No. 15 (current), paragraph 4. On the
3rd October the fifth “ Hind ” machine to be erected at the Shahbaz Aircraft
Factory An East India Company trading post. at Doshantappeh successfully completed its test flight.
It is now confidently expected that the remaining fifteen machines will be
delivered before March 1941.
(iii) Fifty young aircraft apprentices from the Apprentices School have
now been introduced into the aircraft factory An East India Company trading post. and a similar number of trained
mechanics discharged. As the factory An East India Company trading post. is already short Ox 246 mechanics, this will
still further slow up construction work.
(iv) Since the beginning of September, Sarhang (Colonel) Mohanna, the
officer commanding the aircraft factory An East India Company trading post. , personally visits the factory An East India Company trading post. daily and
frequently orders workers to be publicly flogged.
(v) Buildings for personnel, stores. Ac., of the Bomber Command, now being
erected on the north side of the Doshantappeh aerodrome and close to the Tehran-
Meshed road, are now nearing completion. The hangars have not yet been begun,
as material, &c., is awaited from Messrs. Boulton Paul and Co. (Limited), of
England.
(5) Iranian State Railways.
Tehrarv-Tabriz-Turkish Frontier Branch. —On the 4th October this branch
was formally opened for traffic as far as Zinjan (million sheet 8.A.4). The total
distance from Tehran is 315 kilom.
(6) British Interests.
(i) For some time negotiations have been in progress with His Majesty’s
Government for the conversion into gold in Ottawa of sterling funds held by the
Imperial Government in London. His Majesty’s Government have made a
generous offer, but discussion of the details has been delayed and confused by the
dilatory methods of the Iranian Minister in London and by the tendency of the
Ministry of Finance to work through several different channels besides the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, e.g., the Midland Bank in London, and even
the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. On Wednesday, the 26th September, the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs sent in an ultimatum saying that, unless certain
demands, neither of which had been made through the diplomatic channel, were
complied with within a week, the Imperial Government would conclude that its
aims could not be achieved and that this might upset the recent arrangement
concluded with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
(ii) The press attache of His Majesty’s Legation, Tehran (Miss A. K.
Lambton), recently travelled to Bagdad by hired motor car, in which a senior
Iranian military officer was also travelling as far as Kermanshah. A summary
of his conversation is given as Appendix “ B ’’O to this summary.
(7) German Interests.
(i) Reference Intelligence Summary No. 19 (current), paragraph 4 (iii). It
appears that relations between Major von Geldern Crespondorff, the German
Military Attache, and the German Minister, Herr Ettel, have not been
harmonious. Members of the German Legation state that the military attache