Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎25r] (50/1237)

li&Vtf bueied himself In the format 1 m of local committees at Ushnu,
fta&adeh and iiahahad to assist t^m. Meanwhile many of the B^rzani
tribesmen, who az 5 ^ in a wretched state, are said to be willing to
rvtum to Iraq if they coaid be sure of clement trestiaent, and
mullah Mustafa*© etock as a leader is said to have slumped badly*
227* fa aria, &ani cl d ullM/. ♦ outfall Tabatabai, the newly appointed
head of the Municipality, shows himself almost pathetically
anxious to do something for thia dilapidated town, but wistfully
agrees tn&t without money it is goin tj to be rather difficult. He
has published a project £r the aaph^lting of the street© to be
financed by borrowing from the national bank, i'he project la
scathingly attacked by the Democrat rarty, who see it as a scheme
of the react!cm&rlea for squeezing the people of Azerbaijan under
the guise of raying tne loan. In any case, the Party r fuse to
recognize Tabmtabai, who, they sey, is trying to work through the
ad municipal council which has no longer any legal status, the
candidates for the new one having been put forward in proper form
months ago.
228. ^judicial ._Invw,utL .ati~)n * Aghai diddi, one of the two experts
of the Ministry of Justice nominated to investigate the ligvan
incident (Diary i$o. 16, para 200), gave a sign of life on October
(50th* His Invectitratlone se.m to be dying quietly away, but he
claims to hav interrogated about 40 of the Tudeh membera involved
in the Digvan incident, and to have secured the release from
prison of the son of the murdered proprietor of Li,van, Dawud Khan,
aau his two sons, Hidayatullah and Manuchehr. Ho arreat© hf?ve
been made (and, of coarse, in present circumstances are not
poesiule), but Aghai Jlddi hopes to make out a case against the
principal of lender© who may perhaps be prosecuted after the
evacuation of the Eueaian troops.
Another of hii* taskc is to investigate charge® of malpractices
against the former Dovarnor-Deneral of Eastern Azerbaijan, Mehdi
Dadvar, who was relieved of his oi ice last March. This
investigstion i. not going so well.
iluestioaed about the caae of assault on two Russian boys and
a girl which occurred last April (Diary Ho. 7, para 83), Aghai
Jiddl said the rix mmi arrested for this affair confeseed their
guilt to the Mersian police, but were then taken in charge by the
Russian Military police and nothing since has been heard of them.
229. Do>.au‘,rci^l The prohibition on the sending of food-
& tuffs to Tehran which wab imposed by the Democr&t Party ©t the
beginning oi November is ©till in force. At first it appeared
to apply to all classes of goods, except piece good© gold by the
Russians. It was evaded by the usual mean©, and seemed indeed
to b« no more then a means ox r&isin* Party funds. It has bet-n
also the pr&cLice of the Rug©Ians to prevent thv export of goods
which they may wish to purenase themselves, in order to keep the
price down.
Dale© by the Soviet Trade Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. showed en increase on last
month*®. Cotton piece good© and sugar remain the principal items*
in the week ending Hovember 18th* the Russians sold more than 60
ton; of sugar, and in the week before they sold cotton piece goods
to the value of about Rig. 10, 00,000. in Tabri bazaar.
Purchases by the Bueeiane have also increased. They sre
reported to be buying raieine, but there is no new© of any fim
contracts. They ©re buying any quantity of wool at Rle. Sd') per
pood of 16 kilograiamee, and are taking large number© of live sheep
/and