Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎526r] (1054/1237)

6.
55.
can to limit tiwair aal<3B to iim goauiao roquiroawate of oach
district, aiid r^lass to sail for hoariir^>
xbv difficulties ap:.-ly to soia« ©xtexit as regards
tue traosport of otr^er commodities qy animals. A caaelderabls
amber of camels is being used for cringing wiieat to tne fabric
J-^ 0 * ir ogress is slow y and unless a do sen lorries can bo
turned on to the job faorissi may uuve to begin tlie winter with
too small a reserve.
lyres have long seen pc* omised for the Governor-
uenei-al fur lorries to transport wheat, ns nas complained
bitterly to me that even after one department has assured him
his eyres are on the v«y, others have telegraphed to enquire
now many he w exit a * In tne result, they don * t arrive, un tl®
otusr hfaha tyi'es were |r oduoed quite quickly for lorries to
curry sugar—west to the refinery at Aianduab.
. , „ 4 m * Koyal engineers ar« hard at w cric repairing the
x a or i ahe n—^i n j an road* Most of the bridges have t > be
reconstructed because they were too far decayed to carry heavy
trailic. This the Mussiaos nave discovered on a stretch of
roau which they sc jealously reserve for themselves. In the
lust week of October a bridge on tm rmd from Ards ail to
«%8Usra collapsed under the weight of a grossly overloaded bus,
vviiich is 11 into tiie river below, heveatean persons ^ere
drowned tnid communications for wxxseled traffic wsrc effectively
cul.^ Ons would suppsss ti^at this s'^rt of thing might make the
Russians Sager to facilitate the work ofths Royal daginssrs on
wiie road from laorxs southwards; but not a bit of it. The
Russian ofiicers at 11 njan and Mianen, fr^eh from «talin rad
behave towards our officers much as Uriah might have ber/aved’
towards David if&e had come back from the fight, nd that
without any of his justification, ^our offiesra bear this with
Patience, but I intend to take the first opportunity of men
tioning the matter eiiectively to the duasian commander.
During the last seek of October the Russians
ail southbound traffic, including a number of u.X.
This action was not confined to the Tabriz-Tehran
leave it to H«M« Legation to tell the etwory.
held up
lorries.
road, and I
A
w * ..* *
The weatner provided tixe best piece of Allied
propagaxjaa which X have yet seen in Azerbaijan when it threw a
white cepe around the shoulders oi dahand. The Tabriz pro-
Germaii® decideu ii v om that momeuxt tuat their friends were not
getting here this year. They seemed diaposed to cut their
.losses and to look elsewhere for trade and undoubtedly this
JChange of mind offers an opportunity to the Allies to develop
Ueeal lndustriss» and so far us conditions penalt to bring
jAserbaljan into the orbit of their ecuxosy, but tfie obstacles
are great. Transport difficulties will continue to isolate
tills remote province, ^nat a pity tue rul iwuy had not been
brought ns far a® Murageh to open up communication with lake
v>n shoies are amongst the most fertile wheat growing
districts ©1 the country, to say nothing of the coal deposits
at haragsh itself.
Arraugementa have been made to open a publicity office
au AAbriz now that the Tabrizi© arc in a more receptive franc
of mind than when they expected the Germans to break through
any d gy . 45
+ > * ene«ay have had an immense success in suggesting
tost the extension of the note issue means that inflation is
on tm way. They have further su,. to *©ted tnat tne Allies will
find excuses for delaying delivery of the goods to Iran in con
nection with tne extension of the note issue.