Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎590r] (1182/1237)

~ 3
[27—66] b 2
7. Before dealing with other problems, it would be well to describe the
poor quality of the local police. My first impressions of them in Rezaieh were
most unfavourable. They slouched along the pavements in twos or threes nanas
in pockets, with a hang-dog look, mostly unshaven and unkempt, a few with black
boots and leggings, some with khaki puttees and shoes, and one I saw with h ee l~
Jess slippers and white socks as part of his uniform. Ihe population take litt e
^r no notice of them at all. One I saw on duty at a principal crossing smoking
a pipe, while a few yards away the main avenue was blocked with donkeys, whose
owners had turned the spot into a standing market for wood and othei pioduce.
I saw no police officers at all in the streets, because they were all too nervous to
venture out. The chief of police had not been outside for a fortnight before my
arrival and lived in one room with two policemen on guard outside. Everyone
says that the bulk of the-policemen in Rezaieh are known to be inveterate opmm-
. smokers and to be worthless as public guardians. The Farmandar admitted that
they still only receive 120 rials a month (less than £1) as pay, although they weie
officially promised 240 rials months ago. The Tehran authorities promised to
send more money, but have not done so. At Dilman (Shahpur) I found that
t policemen were getting 170 rials instead of 240. The gendarmerie are not in
much better condition. Nobody seems to expect them to fight or resist wrong
doers unless they outnumber the attackers, and they will not go into the
countryside, where they are supposed to be. Their chief in Rezaieh is also a
characterless heavy opium-smoker. No good can be done until both corps are
reorganised and properly trained, regularly paid a living wage and taugnt some
notion of their duties. At present they are half-paid, but do not earn even that,
and use the disturbed state of the town and countryside as an excuse for their
sloth instead of the reverse. One really cannot altogether blame the Russians
for not actively co-operating with such a nondescript and slovenly lot o^
individuals. . , ^
8. Although it appears that for some time the town had not been patrolled
by police, when I arrived armed Soviet guards were patrolling the streets both
at night and in the daytime, and everyone admitted that order was perfectly
restored. One of the chief causes of police timidity was an attack by supposed
villagers or Kurds about ten days before on a tax collector’s post at the chief
entrance of the town, in which two police and two tax-gatherers were killed and
one gendarme wounded. The assailants robbed their victims before killing them,
and the police say they were overcome because their rifle bullets jammed in the
barrels, so rubbishy were their cartridges. 4 he police also say their headquarters
were attacked a few days afterwards in the main square of the town, but I heard
on good authority that" a single shot went off outside and that the police inside
began blazing away through the windows in all directions.
9. At the same time that the Soviet authorities decided to patrol the town
themselves, they also pointed out a number of individuals inside the town and at
a village nearby as suspected of the murderous attack mentioned above, and the
Persian gendarmeries arrested these. This laudable act is, however, completely
overshadowed in local eyes by the alleged interference of the Russians in
demanding the release of certain criminals whom the gendarmerie had arrested
on their own initiative for the murder of a rich man in a village. The most has
been made of this story locally and in Tabriz, and doubtless it has been spread
by now in Tehran. 1 found out (from a good Persian source) that actually two
suspects were arrested and brought to Rezaieh (the Russians say at their
instigation), but, owing to the dilatoriness of Persian justice, nearly two months
elapsed without their even being charged. The Russians then told the Governor-
General that either they should be sentenced or else set free, so he instructed the
Public Prosecutor to begin proceedings immediately. No witnesses, however,
could be found willing to testify against the accused, and so they were set free.
That same evening the Director of Public Security was killed in public in the
town, and it was, of course, alleged by everyone that the released criminals were
responsible, and the Russians naturally doubly so. There is another story of the
same kind which seems to have more foundation, in which a certain well-known
thief named Jelal was arrested by the police in the town, but was almost
immediately released by order of some junior Soviet officers. When the Russian
Commandant was questioned about this by the Farmandar he pretended to have
no knowledge of the affair.