Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎436r] (874/1237)

SECRET
is extremely partial. He was not very successful as the
interpreter, who was believed to be an Assyrian, was reported
as having said in the town that the British officers had come
to look for accommodation in Hyderabad for British troops who
were shortly to replace the Russians there. I think it is
reasonable to suppose that the welcome accorded to these
]intruders was due in part to the changed Russian attitude
towards us since the successful conclusion of the Tunisian
campaign, on which, however, we should be unwise to
jpresume too much. In part also it was no doubt due to the
fact that Mr. Maximoff, who seems to be a very level-headed
man, was able to act on his own initiative. had the
military commander been present the story might have been
very different. I apologised to Mr. Maximoff for this
incident and assured him that we would do our best to prevent
a repetition and I also thanked him for the courtesy which
he had shown to the officers. As regards the surveying of
the. port at Hyderabad I said that I supposed that the British
authorities had never lost sight of the possibility of
using the Rowanduz route for supplies to Russia and that
we were keenly interested in seeing that nothing was left
undone which would help us in fulfilling our obligations
in this .direction. Mr. Maximoff agreed and there, I hope,
the matter on, the Russian side is closed, although I cannot
feel sanguine that the Soviet military authorities will adopt
an equally complacent attitude.
14. MOSl£M-ChRlSTIAH RELATIONS . On the whole there seems
to be little religious ill-feeling due in part no doubt to the
moderating influence of the old Mujtahid. There are, however, a
few bad elements still active in creating trouble. The most
unpleasant manifestation of Moslem fanaticism came at the end of
March when Father Franssen, the head of the French Catholic
Mission.received a parcel which when opened was found to contain
the dead body of a child. An anonymous letter accompanying the
package implied that someone in the Mission was the father of the
child. Father Franssen at once went to the police but so far they
have made little progress. It is suspected that since it was
most likely a Moslem attempt to throw discredit on the Mission,
the Persian authorities, who are all Moslems, are not anxious to
uncover the plot which might involve their co-religionists in
unsavoury proceedings. Father Franss.en is, however, determined
to pursue the matter, if necessary through the Apostolic Delegate
in Tehran. He also asked me to try to urge the local police
to take up the affair more vigorously and I accordingly spoke to
the Chief of Police and said that, as a French institution was
involved, we could not. remain disinterested. He replied, to my
astonishment, that he did not consider the matter very serious and
thought it was only a schoolboy prankl I said that I viook a very
different view and that I was surprised that he regarded it so
lightly in view of the fact that a dead body was involved which
the police had not yet succeeded in identifying. He then assured
me that the secret police were continuing their investigations
and that they thought they were on the track of the perpetrators
of the outrage. I doubt whether anything will come of it unless
the Apostolic Delegate can urge action in Tehran.
I 5 * PROPAGANDA . The Russians still seem to be doing very
little in this direction and I could discover no trace of their
having sold or distributed pamphlets in Persian, Turki, Armenian,
Kurdjs'h or Russian. This does not mean to say that such pamphlets
do not exist os my enquiries had to be made very discreetly and
must only be considered as very superficial. The Turkish Consul
/told