Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎127r] (254/1237)

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as bitter in their criticisms of his supineness as are the soldier citizens. He has,
however, escaped any accusation of gross corruption. If weak, he would seem to
be reasonably honest, and perhaps his one object is to hold his job down with a
minimum of trouble until he can comfortably retire. The Governor (Farmandar),
Mubassir Roshani, after a prolonged absence in Tehran, was replaced in February
by Muhammad Hussein Muhtashami. Roshani, a man with long experience in
the Persian Foreign Service and enjoying a reputation for honesty, competence
and punctiliousness, was looked upon by most people in Tabriz as the last hope
for any kind of order or efficiency in municipal affairs. His successor is believed
not to have the confidence either of the Governor-General or the Russian
authorities, and the general opinion, which he himself shares, is that he is not
destined to stay long in Tabriz. With the removal of Sarhang Durakhshani
from the Governor-Generalship of Western Azerbaijan, the administration of
the province has been still further weakened. His successor, Sa’eed Sami’i,
though appointed in January, has not yet arrived to take up his duties, and the
administration of the Fourth Ustan is in the hands of Sarhang Zangineh, a
soldier of good reputation but of quite unknown capacity as an administrator.
Sarhang Durakhshani succeeded as Commandant of Persian troops in Azerbaijan
Sartip Khosrovani, who was unceremoniously bundled out of the province by the
Soviet authorities for his presumed responsibility for the firing which occurred
during a demonstration in favour of the oil concession on the 30th October, 1944.
Durakhshani has not yet had to face a similar test and it cannot be said
whether he would survive it, but he appears to get on very well with the Russians
while stoutly maintaining that he will not truckle to the rabble-rousers. He
has it to his credit that Western Azerbaijan was perfectly peaceful during his
tenure of office there. He inspires confidence in the nervous bourgeoisie and has
recently earned applause by organising a demonstration march of Persian troops
through Tabriz—the more effective for its being the sole reminder for many
months past that the Government of this country is after all Persian.
7. Tabriz Municipality remains only a name. Its head, Ghulam Reza
Ilhami, who himself appeared to treat it as a joke, and devoted his serious
attention to currying favour with the Russians, incurred the displeasure of the
Minister of the Interior by signing a demand for reforms presented by the
Freedom Front on the 1st December, 1944, and was summoned to Tehran, as it was
thought, to be relieved of his office. The chief of Tabriz police, Mehdi Guli Ziai,
equally inefficient and corrupt, was also summoned to Tehran early in the year.
But though the replacement of both these officials is imperative if there is to be
any improvement in municipal affairs, it is expected that they will have been
able to enlist sufficient Russian support to retain .their offices. A new
Commandant of Gendarmerie in Azerbaijan was appointed early in January.
Like his predecessors, and like most other Persian officials, he complains of the
impossibility of carrying out his duty when every move is subject to Russian
approval which as often as not, is not forthcoming. His chief task has been the
regrouping of the force throughout the province, withdrawing small isolated posts
and concentrating his men in a few larger centres from which patrols will operate :
a reform which has not the wholehearted approval of Sarhang Kamal, the
Commandant of Gendarmerie in Rezaieh. Meanwhile nothing has occurred to
sweeten the relations between the gendarmerie on the one hand and the villager^
and Kurds on the other. It would probably take much effort to clear the gendarmes
of all the charges of oppression, extortion and corruption that are daily made
against them, and it is not surprising that many peasants are beginning to see in
the Tudeh party an ally against them. The Kurds still prefer to shoot their own.
8. Mr. Thomas Allen, American head of the Supply Department, and of
the Finance Department, too, for a time, under the Millspaugh regime, failed to
make much impression on the muddle and malpractices attending the distribution
of monopoly goods. The task was more than one man could hope to accomplish
and, in spite of his ferocious zeal, which shocked and alienated all his Persian
subordinates, some of the worst scoundrels continued to wax fat under his very
, nose. Since his departure yet one more effort is being made in Tabriz to issue
ration cards in numbers corresponding roughly with the population, while in the
country districts distribution appears to be haphazard and accompanied by
such complicated frauds as probably lay at the bottom of the recent riot in
Mahabad. A Persian head of the Supply Department has now been appointed,
but it is too early yet to judge his ability.
9. The Freedom Front and Tudeh Persia .—The Left-wing movement has
made steady progress during the six months and has become, after the Soviet
[64-^98] B 2