Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎103r] (206/1237)

rr.4:, , . ll ra?4i. ll i..U* Tudeh x-'apty 1 s campaign for agrarian reform
ia ouizig pursued 'witd ire &h vigour no ; at tiiis aeason \*h&zi tne division
oi the cropa puts a poweriul weapon against the landlords into the
Pe&biftnig iiaixde* A aumdej. oX agents nave been aunt recently into
X-'iQ'v incial «owns €i£u viilagca> no doubt to up the c ^j u t MciigTi>
though bqkis intexprct their miaslon as being to prepare the grouaA for
the •lections and. also to agitate xor the retention of the Russian
occupying troops in tuio province* Xhea© objeotSf however^ are not
^tualiy exclusive. Ahmed Xsfaiiani, a prominent leader of the Workers’
Wnion and iuueh Party, h&Q himeelf gone to Ardebil*
xuu ceiitre of agraritUi trouble has shiiteu iii the last few weeks
lr*cm Mara e ha to Sarah, between iauriz ana Ardeoii* On July iSth. it v/as
repox'tod tnat a laniiloi’d named nir ^avaia, his son and a friend had been
killed in a brail wita peasants there* Ho official confirmation of this
hae yet been received, hater a number of landlords’ bailiffs came in to
xuDiiz xrom iiarab and oomplalned to tne dnicf ol denuMr.ii^xie here that
the peasants were r. fusing altogether uo nanu over the landlords’ shares
ol tne produce* ihe peasants, they said, ter- being led by agitators
we; .ring red am-band a bearin to the inscription *Hikbi Tudehi Iran”* The
Bailiffs appealed also to the Acting Governor—benerai viio apparently
adviaea tnem to ^ait a bit and see what happened* They objected that
they could not wait as the cx*ops were already oei:*g gathered in* The
vhief of Oandamerie here instructed the Oomnanding Officer of
u v iau< j.x ?i<w.t io In uai’ao oo iielp in collectit-^g the Imidlords’ uiinrea, but
one landlord who communicated privately with the dsudarmerie at harsh
received the reply txxat nothing could ue done aj^uinst the Tudch Party*
Most of the landlords of tne district ar-, of couree, absentees,
resident iii labrisi* hone seexas to have gone to ourab to aes what the
trouble was about - no* surprisingly if tnc mport of murder is correct*
But about JO ox them scut a joint telegram on July 18th. to the fhah,
trie Aajlis and who lehr on Press, claiming that UAileas the d-ovcriiment
helped thca to outaiu tneir shuree of tae produce they were absolved
from luifilUng tho undertakings they had given to sell grain to the
Government*
Tau Bakhshdui* of Maraud vmo has been visiting Tabria sj.ys that
there hafc> been aOme similar trouble over the division of crops in his
district also, out he claims to nave settled it satiuf act >m iy •
14?. ,uiti-x ut.sa . Qa July doth, a certalinir Puiiim, who said he
was newly arrived from Tehran, called at the Consulate^Oenerdl and
announced that ha was going to form a branch of the Iradei Mill! Party
in Tabriz, fie had been provided, he said, with letters of introduction
Doth from, the British embassy mid iron deyyid Zia uh Jin, out tLifortun-
ately had ” 1031 '’ both document®, he is not the first fishy character
to ask trie nelp of tXiis Consulste-General in foming an anti-Tudeh Party,
148* -lepaieu * 11 appearx to be quiet among the nurds of »astern
Axerb|ijan. Prom kezaieh tovn there ar^; reports of the kind of Inter
ference by the Russians in internal affaire which has become so familiar
to the peopl ol this province. A police detective has bean arrested
and imprisoned by the uoviat authorities on a charge of insulting a
portrait of Jtaiia. The r-ul motive for nis arrest is sai-i to be that
he interrogated an Armenian member ol the Tudeh Party who was in
possession of a typewriter known by the police to have been stolon*
A landlord or Ixe&aiek called Maulavi who v.aa expelled from the town
about six months ago by the xiussian authorities returned there from
Tabriz last week. He had no sooner arrived than he was summoned before
the Soviet To n Commandant who gave him four hours to la&ve the town.
He is now back once more in Tabriz*
M. Haenimov, th© Soviet Vice-Consul at Kezaieh, has recently
Visitec Tabriz*
149. knjw-'lt h all. irs * There is no relis le nev e of m# further
activitiee of the kurdiah Nationalist Society ’’ifomala”. An Iraqi
Bourct t .ivep the following information about the Society I Its troop®
now number about &,000 ausn, armed end equipped uy the icussians. They
wear a uniform cousiating of khaki coats, clack trousers and kurdieh
sash and turban* The Society hus evolved its own Kurdish national
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