Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎530r] (1062/1237)

Tabriz Diary No
40. r>epteraber
ILE COPY HITT (^6
gust 81st to ?©otaiRbar 20th 1942.
atiil no min to interfor© with the threshing
a well-behaTad season. And fror now on the sun is a friend, not an
enemy; the second blanket is folded cn the end of the bad. "rom
now on too the higher points of tht> Caucasian passes are very
ohilly and it won»t be fun of nights for the Orrman parachute party
which took poabession of the peak of ‘taunt Elbrus..
a
41* ' Agrioul*qre « After the wheat and barley her^est cones the
augar-Deot. last year there was no wheels! transport, following
the Husiiiun ocoupetion, and of a crop of 35,000 tons only 7,000
reached tha Miandouab sugar-refinary. The res 4 was f«d to animals*
This year the crop is est Isms ted at 22,000 tone which ou^ht to
yield 5,000 tons of sugar. Some of it will hare to travel 60
miles to the refinery end wheeled transport is indispensable. I
am submitting au&geatioa* to t T. 8(r . Legation about this*
4<£« io od-AuDDli^a . There la no shortage ^ow. There is something
like 1,000 ioniof whaat in the silo, collected fros? the imnediate
neighbourhood of Tabriz. The Gpvernor-Creneral aseembled the master-
bakers and triad to secure reductions in the price of bread, but he
had little success, rud that was terpPfary. Prices ere irreeiatibly
on the up-grade, said the sky** the li!?it. How could it be otherwise
when Turkey is efferin# £la. 5,000 » ton against the His. 1,500
which officials liku to pretend in the open merket price, and
a&alnbt the official price for landlord*e rrain of His. 1,200 a ton l
The Tehran Government ie fertile in schemes. Take two of the
latest to to handed out: a) The peas^ntr grain will be paid for
half in ctush, half in tea, . ugar or piece-gooda. Veir^ attractive
indeed, but uo the atocka of these commodities exist 7 TTiey do
not, apart from com© tea in Tabriz, neither in Eastern or 7'estern
Azerbaijan, nor Us there,j^y plan fer controlling the issue of these
commodities, or any indication to what limits they will be is9ued 9
if at all.
b) In astern Azerbaijan, Kurdistan end Kernsnshah the AgriotKLt-
urai iiank will buy grain in the open -rarket so as tc > top struggling
out of the country. In a cetera Azerbaijan the Kurds control the
wheat growing areas of Mahabad, U&hnu, Boiduz, Acral, Biradost,
liaranauz, and a good deal of the :%ku district. They are buying uc
I the wheat in those districts at from 3,200 to 5,700 riels a ton,
the prices boine, higher in the districts nvnr to the frontier, s
clear indication of the direction of flow. It is this wheat which
the aillien would like* to kcop in the country, but th* Persian
authorities ore resigned to seeing it go. Thry are sitting on their
haunches in Kez&leh buying the wheel which the peasants of the
neighbourhood aro bringing in for safety - "distressed cargo" which
is soiling cheap ut His. 1,500 a ton. rr his, they say, is therefore
tb j kairkot price whereas the real oren market price is what the
Kurds outside are paying. The Kurds will get Us. 5,000 a ton if
they uurry that wheat over the mountrins into Turkey. They would
probably be glad to resell it on this side of the mountains for
4,0;)0 e ton. I should say there are us to 10,000 tons of it
altogether, mid that,,fulling energetic action, of which there is
at present no si^n/it will all disappear. Already the Iraqi Kurds
\ are striking their sutoter camps and it is known they have bought
large quantities to take back to Iraq. Nothing but frontier control
will' kaep that in the country, and duly the Allies can provide such
:control at short notice.
The Persians h-ve always allowed it to be understood that the
Httt-si&na would prevent th© movement Southwards otf the Azerbaijan
surplus grain. xarsination of actual foots does not bear this out,
and now it should be finally exploded because the ihissian Consulate
General told ne they estimate that Azerbaijan ought to have 35,000
tons to spare for the South.
A leading landlord whom I have consulted thinks that if we
really take action and are not led by the nose from one Government
paper scheme to another, we could between now and spring get
/50,000 tons of wheat.......