Coll 28/120(2) ‘Persia. Ahwaz – Consular Diaries’ [‎9r] (17/224)

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party on the 23rd Pehruary in celebration of the 28th
anniversary of the inception of the Red Army. ihe Iraqi
Consul and Vice-Consul from Khorramshahr came, and also xir.
land Mrs. Xeelan from the British Consulate Khorramshahr.
However && apart from heads of departments very few local
Persians and none of the Arab sheikhs who had been invited
a»ame, Novikov seemed disappointed that the General Manager
of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company from Abadan did not at end.
( 24 ) ^he Soviet Consul has been several times to
Khorramshahr, and has also started a school for Persians
wishing to learn Russian. The teacher is an elderly Caucasian
named Memed Khalil&v, who speaks fluent Persian, having
been employed for some time in Gilan some 20 years ago in
Soviet trading organisations such as Vneshtorg and Persazneft.
He is 65 years of age, and he claims to have 35 pupilsi
( 3 )
T R I B E 6 .
(25) ^he Army authorities sent two gold watches to
be ©resented to two Kuh-Gilu ked-khudac named Nadir Khan
and Peridun Khan, at Gach Saran, early in February. -i.aey
had been useful in providing guards for the survey part,,, J
working on a rapid map of the road from Gach baran to
Genaveh during January and February. (*) of No. 612 Field
Survey Company)
(26) . Jehanshah Samsam-Bakhtiari, who with Abiul-
Qasim as his assistant is running the affairs of the (
Bakhtiari tribe, called twice during the month and endeav
oured to obtain support for his candidature for the oi^icial
cost of Farmandar of the tribe. He showed a letter from his
father Morteza Quli Khan to the effect that the latter
h«ped that Jehanshah and his dear friend Abul Qasim would be
officially appointed and would succeed in running the tribe
very well. Incidentally the text of the telegram fron the
Prime Minister, Ahmed Qawam, dispensing v/ith Morteza Quli
Khan’s services as Farmandar and assigning the affairs cf
the tribe to the Governor-General of Isfahan for the present
was produced. It seems that the principal rivals to tie
two young men are the aged bardar Muhtasham and Amir Hussein
Ilkhan The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. .
( 27 ) # The principal Kuh Gilu chiefs left for Beabehan
during the month. They were all to some extent disappointed
at the amount of cloth, tea, and sugar rations they received,
in spite of the fact that the Governor-General and the
* an 6 Finance Director stretched a point< ; *gave them their
ment not only for the month of Bahman but also for Fsiana,
which does not come to an end till the 21st March. Th ^
reason for their dissatisfaction is curious. The statistics
on which the issue ®f rations is being made at present are.
the figures which the tribe gave to the census department in
Reza bhah’s time when conscripts were being taken from -hell:
the total then shown was 25,000. The tribe now say that of
course that was an absurd under-estimate, and should ha'.e
been 85,000 at leaot. The question whether to is..ue rations
for the excessof 85,000 over ^5 000 has been referred t«
Tehran and no reply has yet arrived. It seems that the issue
of the smaller amount has had a verygood effect and may
have kept the tribe from their traditional predatory habits.
Nevertheless it is sad to have to record that practically
none of the rations ever reached the individuals of the
tribe: the bulk issues were sold at a profit in Ahwaz and
Khorramshahr by the tribal chiefs concerned. One result of
this has been internal difficulties from certain disappointed
’’kcdkhudau '.