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Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [571r] (1144/1237)
The record is made up of 1 file (615 folios). It was created in 16 Dec 1941-6 Mar 1946. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
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DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
PERSIA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
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^ Copy No. 11 £
[E 28 80/163/841
Sir R. Bullard to Mr. Eden.—(Received May 8.)
(No. 117.) T . ,
HIS Majesty’s representative presents his compliments to His Majesty s
Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and has the honom to transmit
herewith a copy of Tabriz despatch No. 10 of the 8th April, 1942, from His
Majesty’s Consul. Tabriz, together with Chancery letter of the 14th April 1942.
from His Majesty’s Consul/Tabriz, regarding the internal situation of Tabriz
and Azerbaijan.
Tehran, Ayril 20, 1942.
Enclosure 1.
Consul Cook to Sir R. Bullard.
(No. 10. Confidential.)
gi r Tabriz, April 8. 1942.
I HAVE the honour to inform you that the situation in Tabriz and
Azerbaijan generally is now quiet, and is probably closer to normal than at any
time since August last.
2. Robberies and thefts have almost ceased in Tabriz itself, and the
“ democratic ” committees are gradually breaking up and losing the disquieting
effect they had on the general population only a month or two ago. The police
have displayed an extraordinary leniency towards the leaders, once that they
knew they could deal with them without difficulty, and have allowed several of
the noisiest firebrands to go into hiding. The official explanation is that the
authorities did not wish to incur a charge of being as harsh and repressive as
during the former detested regime and so afford material for further attacks on
the Tehran Government. This would accord with the easy-going and would-be
diplomatic personality of the Governor-General, M. Khalil Fahimy, but he tells
me confidentially that he is not satisfied with the laxness and poor efficiency of
the local police and of its chief in this connexion. It is a fact that, after the
police had watched all night tq arrest one Pouladoff. in the morning he was
spirited off by four unknown civilians under their eyes and lost to them. I
suspect that the local authorities are still nervous of the susceptibilities of the
Russians, whom they still credit with being behind these “ clubs ” in spite of all
disclaimers; it is also practically certain that some of the leading committee-men
were police agents, so" that it might be awkward to arrest them.. At any rate
this episode is nearly over, although we shall doubtless hear more of the
“ democrats ” later in some guise or other.
3. The newspaper Azerbaijan overstepped itself last week in its usual
anti-Government tirades by printing an article accusing the local authorities of
sending large quantities of wheat from Bustanabad (near Tabriz) to Tehran
while there was only forty days’ supply left here, so that in a few weeks
Azerbaijan would be "without bread. As a result the whole ignorant population
of Tabriz rushed to the bakeries and each tried to lay in as big a stock of bread
as they could buy. The Governor-General acted quickly by publishing a notice
saying that the report was completely baseless, that no wheat was being moved
from Bustanabad except to Tabriz—very gradually because of lack of transport—
and that anyone who wished could go and inspect the stocks of over 5.000 tons
of wheat in the silos here. He then turned the tables on the editor by saying
that spreading panic by such means was a crime, and that it might be remembered
that just recently Berlin and Rome had been broadcasting false reports of food
shortages in Azerbaijan so that readers could draw their own inferences as to
the editor’s sources and intentions. As the editor and sub-editor are bosom
[29—49]
RECd. POL, DEPt.
6JUN 942
INDIA OFFICE
The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors.
About this item
- Content
Reports and correspondence concerning the internal situation in Azerbaijan and Tabriz during the region’s occupation by Soviet military forces, part of the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Persia [Iran] in the Second World War. The file chiefly comprises reports, submitted on a monthly (and later fortnightly) basis by the British Consul-General at Tabriz, reporting on events in Azerbaijan and Tabriz. Reports up to July 1942 are printed, while subsequent reports are typewritten. The typewritten reports are organised under subheadings that vary from one report to the next, but generally cover: weather; agriculture, locust movements, food supply and reports of hoarding; consular tours; the activities of consular colleagues and counterparts; local government, local politics, and elections; Kurdish affairs, including events at Rezaieh [Orūmīyeh]; Armenian affairs; public order; the activities of the Persian, Russian and United States military; trade, commerce and labour; transport and communications, including convoys, and the activities of the United Kingdom Commercial Corporation (UKCC); propaganda. From late 1944 onwards the reports increasingly focus on rising political and social unrest in Azerbaijan, which would eventually culminate in the Iran-Azerbaijan crisis of 1946. These later reports focus on the emergence and activities of new political parties (including the Tudeh Party and the Democratic Party), new political newspapers, and Soviet activities in Azerbaijan.
The file also includes: correspondence sent by the British Ambassador in Tehran, Reader William Bullard, forwarding the Tabriz Consul’s reports with comments to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; note sheets covering numerous reports, giving a précis of the report’s contents; the translation of a report by the Persian Minister for War, secretly obtained by British sources, describing military and political conditions at Rezaieh, dated 17 May 1942 (ff 560-564); a report of a visit to Rezaieh in February 1945, compiled by the British Consul-General at Tabriz (ff 147-154).
The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (615 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the file.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 617; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [571r] (1144/1237), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/3524, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100069965569.0x000091> [accessed 30 July 2026]
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/3524
- Title
- Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’
- Pages
- front, front-i, 1ar, 2r:69v, 71r:136v, 138r:150v, 150ar:150av, 151r:194v, 196r:197v, 199r:300v, 302r:420v, 424r:560v, 565r:575v, 577r:581r, 583r:616v, back-i, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence