Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎420r] (842/1237)

3
powerful support for their progressiYe policy. Also, the peasants
haye had time to ponder, and while ready to preb anything they
can in unsettled times, they are not prepared to accept communism
in cold blood. Most of them are religious fanatics, and only a
yery little above their animals in intelligence. Thus there are
many landlords who feel confident that they can handle the
peasants despite political agitation, by an appeal to religious
prejudice, or the well-timed gift of a little grain. The town
workers, particularly the factory An East India Company trading post. workers of Tabriz, may prove
less amenable, and it is that possibility together with the fear
of Russian intervention, which alarms l£r. Jurabohi and his fellow
capitalists. I think, however, that these fears are exaggerated*
8. In Western Azerbaijan there is scarcely any political
activity at present. The parties which sprouted so quickly in
Rezaieh when the Russians arrived have died out. Only in Mandouab
has one Tudeh speaker been heard so far. Here too landlords seem
to have confidence that they can menage affairs more or less in the
old way.
9. From immediate election problems my discussion with l£r•
Jurabchi ranged over general topics. I told Mr. Jurabehi that if
I were a Persian I would pay less attention to the bogey of Russian
intervention and more to the actual conditions in the country. I
had begun to say that twenty-five years ago the peasant had a
second coat to go to market in, e few tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. to splash et his son’s
wedding, whereas now he had nothing, when Mr. Jursbohi took the
tale from my mouth and gave his version of ho* the government
monopolies had impoverished the peasant by making him pay more for
his sugar, tea end cloth, and ruined thousands of small traders
when the big companies were formed. The result was that t e rich
who participated in the various companies have become richer and
the poor poorer. Indeed ha said Persia now presented the condi
tions which Len*n said were pre-requisite for revolution, and he
reeled off a list of contrasting prices, past and present, to
illustrate the hardships of the ordinary citizen; but he was
anxious to prove that the division of wealth would be fatal, and
he seemed to think that the left-wing parties were quite capable
of that excess if once they got the power. He has the poorest
opinion of his fellow countrymen; they work, he says, just as much
as they are made to work by the employers and landlords, and if a
peasant were once given his share of the land and had the present
compulsions removed he would spend his whole day at ease beneath
the bough, to the ruin of fctx agriculture.
10. Squally definite were his opinions of the Russians. They
were, he said, at present benefiting from an entirely false
contrast between the behaviour of their troops and, for example,
the Americans, who drank and committed various follies; but he
thought the Russians concealed beneath their disciplined attitude
a policy dangerous for Iran in the long run. The iinmediate future
Uould, he believed, show that they intend to pack the Majlis with
men favourable to them, so far as they couJd do so in their zone,
as a first step towards detaching Azerbaijan.
11. We shall see; and what we shall see may be a clue to what you
have called the "Russian enigma" in this country. Meantime, although
I have had to record Mr. Jurabchi’s views, bfcing typical of the
outlook of the industrialists here, I have no intention of being
influenced by them in the slightest. In the first place they are
exaggerated; in the second, it is particularly necessary at this
stage that no British representative here sh ouid say or do anything
which, if repeated to the Russians, might incite them to interven
tion in the election procedure in order to offset some supposed
British activity. 3o I gave Mr. Jurabchi little comfort; I did not
directly rebuff him, but I did reject the implications that the
Russian government is plotting to detach Azerbaijan, that Russia will
not honour her treaty obligations.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your most obedient, humble servant,
(sgd) R. to• Urquhart