Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎429r] (860/1237)

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one on June JJ7t h whldfe.
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/•either . formal, with thundei*W> w -, wu <, UiiW ,, W u WI
probably helped the late cron* so ewhat and another on Jui£[ $|Ji I
^fhioh did not help since harvesting w&s already in progress
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A> -Vci 27 * , il2£i2£it* Venus, ocoulted by the raoon on July 6th7 1
ro^^owerds /line p.a. right on the upr^er tip of the four-day old crescent
her light glittering and broken by comparison with the smooth edge
yjp' of the moon so th t she had the appearance of being partly within
the moon’s tip, A large crowd gazed on this unusual sight. 1 Ttaw
^Turkish crescent, we are now told, had nothing to do with the Moon
^originally, and anyway the orescent and star isn’t an exclusively
Turkish emblem; but for Tabrlzis there tvas only one reading of the
portent; Turkey will soon be in the war.
Locusts. ‘I he Urectdr of Agrioulture did not obtain fro® the
V ?U8i5i ^ t ^ ie vehicles which tiiey promised for all that he had an
^. 0 -WAix rticle published in the local paper thanking them in advance. He
* „ y\waB abla howev er to obtain a lorry from the local transport office
, and eventually went into the infected area in Maughan steppe. It
y® 8 ^ 10 ^ roa affair in any ease.
' Agriculture . Between July 2nd and 4th 1 made a circuit df
Lake Urumieh from north to south. The harvest was Just getting into
swing and it was good to see fine cro^s almost everywhere, although
there was short stuff on some hillsides where the soil is thin. In
the Rezaie# plain, which is of course especially fertile, I saw wheat
being cut which must be as good as can be found anywhere, fine
upstanding stems, heavy-headed and thick on the ground. The Kurds in
Mahabad used the same refrain; of the various crops in Kurdistan all
are good. A Tabriz story that insects were ruining^suger beet
crop was found to be grossly exaggerated. The damage is small, so
far.
There is to be an Agricultural Exhibition in Tabriz this
autumn where crops, machinery, methods and so forth will be demon*
at t at*•.d. It is booed to attract an attendance from all over
Azerbaijan.
A year ago the last Governor General assured me that the
Russians had purchased so many animals of all kinds that the peasants
would not be able to perform all their agriculture work. This has
been proved untrue, since the peasants subsequently cultivated a
record harvest. But the Russians hove gone on purchasing horses,
donkeys and cuttle and. I am agdin told that the peasants have over
sold. I should say there is some truth in the statement now. One
landlord tells me that it is desired to demonstrate at the forth
coming exhibition light ploughs which can be drawn by one animal
instead of two, so as to ensur t that ploughing will not suffer.
ixr^ ,J? h ? x 1 ;ly af ? or 1 wrote Pa™.112 of ray Diary No.10, I learned
^ that otliOAfcls notices had been issued from Tabriz ordering landlords
and peasants to hold themselves ready to provide the information
required for the assessment of the harvest. Groups of officials were
subsequently sent out to collect the information, but they had little
success anywhere and three Karadagh villages rose to chase them away,
i understand that towards the end of J^ne a telegram was sent to
Tehran saying that the project of estimating the harvest in advance
tfould have to be abandoned. Elsewhere nothing at all seems *tofcave
been attempted.
^°* Coramunioations. Between July 2nd and 4th I traversed over
of ver K bfi<i roads. The best stretches were between Marand
^ hoi ?J ? <i •fcf* ie h an d ^ahabad, i.e. relatively unfrequented roads
which remain as eza Ehah left them. Several gongs of labourers
under Russian military supervision were working hard on the road
between Tabriz and ^arand, that is, on the main Russian line of
eorminications to the north. Elsewhere nothing was being done and
the rood from Mahabad to Tabriz in particular was abominable.
The Royal Engineers report that on the Tehran road they ore
Mudleanpad for the moment because the peasants have preferred to go
* • on the retaining wall where the Shlbli road
i El. f /threatened to
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