'File 11/44 Leading Personalities in Iraq, Iran & Saudi Arabia' [‎11v] (22/96)

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and remained there as military attach^, till 1924.
On the staff of the G.O.C. North-West Division in
1924. Chief of police in 1929. In temporary com
mand of the air force in 1931. Liaison officer with
the Iraq forces in the operations against Jaafar
Sultan 1931-32. Head of the Conscription Depart
ment 1934. Accompanied His Imperial Majesty
the Shah on his journey to Turkey in 1934. Has
the Gallipoli star.
Governor of Rezaieh in 1941, but retired thence
in a great hurry when the town was threatened with
insurrection by Kurds and Assyrians in March 1942.
Suspected of complicity in the Zahedy plots. Very
intimate with the Turkish Ambassador, 1943.
Arrested at the instance of the Allied security
authorities September 1943, released May 1945.
Director of Military Tribunal, Tehran, Februarv
1946.
Energetic and loquacious; a brigadier-general in
rank. Has a Turkish wife. Neither studious nor
professionally ambitious. Shows some interest in
horse-racing.
A bovine and brutish appearance gives the clue to
his personality.
82. Lankarani, Shaikh Husain
Born about 1890 in Soviet Azerbaijan. Elected
Deputy for Ardebil in the fourteenth Majlis. Owed
election to Soviet intervention. Without Russian
backing would have no influence. Noted Tehran
intriguer, mob orator and trouble-maker. In 1943-44
was employed by the Shah to stir up trouble against
Sayyid Zia-ud-Din. A typical Akhund, venal and
double-faced. Qavam arrested him July 1946, but
released him in December.
83. Mansur, {Rajah) Ali, C.B.E. (Mansur-
ul-Mulk).
Born about 1888. Educated in the School of
Political Science at Tehran. Began his career in
the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and was employed
in the English section. He subsequently trans
ferred to the Tribunal section, where he rose to be
Director of the Civil Court. Appointed Director of
the English section in 1917. Appointed Under
secretary of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1919,
and Under-Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior
in 1920. Created C.B.E., 1920. Appointed
Governor-General of Azerbaijan in April 1927, and
held that post until January 1931, when he was
made Minister of the Interior. Transferred to the
post of Minister of Roads and Communications in
January 1933. Arrested in January 1936 on charges
of misappropriation and incompetence. Acquitted
August 1936. Rehabilitated as Minister of Industry
and Mines, August 1938.
Mansur is believed to have made money out of
the sale of promotions while at the Ministry of the
Interior. During the time he was employed in the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs he was brought into
contact very frequently with this legation, and was
always found to be friendly and agreeable. Selected
by Reza Shah for the post of Prime Minister June
1940, it was to him that the joint Russo-British
ultimatum was delivered on the 25th August, 1941.
As the result of the subsequent events he resigned
in September 1941. Governor-General of Khoras-
san, February 1942 ; in which post he showed some
energy in collecting wheat, though his adminis
tration of the funds of the shrine laid him open to
various accusations of embezzlement. Recalled
from Khorassan in the autumn of 1945. A clever
man, often in the running for the post of Prime
Minister. Speaks French. Appointed Governor-
General, Azerbaijan, December 1946.
84. Marzban, Dr. Ismail {Amin-ul-Mulk)
Born about 1875, at Resht. Studied medicine in
France, and has practised as an oculist at Tehran
for about the last forty years. Visited London in
connexion with the Constitutional movement in
1906. Has had several excursions into politics,
having been Minister of Posts and Telegraphs when
ever his fellow-citizen, the late Sipahdar, was in
power. President of the Iran Club after Jam, a
post which he still holds.
Universally liked and respected as an honest old
gentleman. Owns a little property in Resht, but is
not rich, and still practised up to his appointment
as Minister of Public Health under Qawam-es-
Saltaneh in 1942. He resigned from that post in
December 1942. One son, Nan'chihr Marzban, is
now in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Has been
a member of the “ Taraqqi ” party for some years,
but has never done much active political work.
Unlikely to do much, either right or wrong. Bene
volent and agreeable manner. Speaks French.
Took a prominent part in supervising the Tehran
elections, December 1943. President of the Anti-
Narcotic League, January 1944. Minister of Health
in Hakimi’s Cabinet, May 1945.
85. Mas'ud, Akhar {Sarim-ud-Donleh)
Born 1885. Eighth, and second surviving, son of
Mas‘ud Mirza Zill-us-Sultan, son of Nasir-ed-Din
Shah. Was early recognised as one of the most
intelligent of the Zill’s fourteen sons, and now has
succeeded to the major part of his father’s inhe^
tance. Minister of Public Works and Commer*
1915. Minister for Foreign Affairs 1916. Governor
of Isfahan in 1917. Minister of Finance in Vusuq-
ud-Douleh’s Cabinet of 1919; one of the triumvirate
who arranged the abortive Anglo-Persian Treaty of
1920; Governor of Kermanshah and Hamadan in
November 1920. Governor-General of Fars 1922-
23, and again in 1929 Arrested shortly after the
fall of Firuz Mirza in 1929, and kept under surveil
lance near Tehran for several months. Thereafter
lived quietly in Tehran till 1932, when he was
allowed to return to his vast properties in and
around Isfahan.
Killed his own mother at his father’s instigation
on a point of honour in 1906. He seems to have
lived down the odium of this deed. Has been
several times to Europe and has visited England.
Speaks English and French fluently and is pleasant-
mannered, clever and intelligent. The two-fold
stigma of being pro-British and a Qajar prevented
him coming back to power during the regime JH
Reza Shah. Since the fall of Reza Shah he h^^[
continued aloof from public affairs, though he has
kept in touch with what is going on, and has now
become the unofficial controller of almost every
thing in Isfahan. He takes a great pride in his
model village at Asgharabad, near Isfahan, and may
very easily have a part to play in shaping Persia’s
future in the next few years. Has one surviving
son, and a daughter. A famous hunter.
86. Mas'udi, Abbas
Born in 1895 in Tehran. Educated in Tehran,
and for a year in France. A journalist by profession
and by nature. Proprietor with his brother, Jamal
Massoudi, of one of the two principal vernacular
daily papers in Tehran (the Ittilaat) and of the
French daily paper Journal de Tehran. He accom
panied the present Shah, when Crown Prince, to
Iraq, Syria and Egypt on his wedding tour as press
representative, and kept the Tehran press supplied
with a stream of accounts of the Prince’s doings, in
that quasi-religious style that alone was permitted
to Persians when speaking of their monarchy. A
Deputy in the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and four
teenth Majlises.
In the thirteenth Majlis came out strongly in oppo
sition to Qavam-us-Saltaneh, being severely beaten
by some of his opponents in the riots of the 8th
December, 1942. Visited Palestine and Egypt in