Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎592r] (1186/1237)

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asking to join the British army. Several respectable Assyrians in the town itself
told me that, if the Russians should be forced to leave suddenly for any reason,
a terrible fate would befall themselves and the Armenians from the Kurds and
ordinary Moslem inhabitants. This is most probably true; the wretched
Christian communities have been bullied and persecuted for years by the
^-Shah’s minions on principle, and it is perhaps not surprising that some of
ern are included in the “ committees ” of alleged trouble-makers or trouble-
seekers, now that the hated Government is itself in difficulties in this province.
It will be remembered that thousands of Assyrians were massacred or driven
from this small area in the last war, and some of their ruined villages and fields
have never been rebuilt or recovered. As it is, I was assured that many Christian
villagers have now been forced to come to the town, where they have no means of
livelihood except gradually to sell off their cattle and stock at ruinous prices.
18. In conclusion, it may be stated that the news of the arrival of a British
Consul at Rezaieh—the first seen for several years—went round like wildfire, and
from all accounts created a surprising impression, especially at the present
juncture. Everyone who met my munshi A term used in the Middle East, Persia and South Asia to refer to a secretary, assistant or amanuensis. Munshis were employed in the British administration in the Gulf. , whom I took with me, repeated, whether
truthfully or not, that the whole town had taken heart again for the time being.
This is partly because of tales describing the wonderful state of order and
prosperity obtaining in the British zone in the south, and partly (as I think)
because of the general feeling of being neglected by their own Government, to
say nothing of being abandoned and deserted by their own pusillanimous officials.
I was careful in every quarter not to give any impression that I had come to
criticise or spy on the Russians, whom I always spoke well of. Every reasonable
person there admitted that the Soviet troops and officers behaved well, did not
obtrude unduly on the life of the place, and paid for all supplies very much more
promptly and generously than the Persian military ever did—testimonials which
it is a pity the Soviet political officer clique manages so unnecessarily to offset.
On all sides the hope was expressed that the British Government would send a
vice-consul or other representative to stay at Rezaieh—a hope which I did not
encourage.
19. The somewhat sombre picture of conditions drawn above might not be
complete unless I added a note on the disquieting ravages which opium-smoking
is causing, particularly in this part of Persia, although it is said to be bad enough
in most of the others. Time after time one is told of the prevalence of opium
smoking among all classes in the Rezaieh Province, but especially among officials
and police in the towns, and even among the women. Persians themselves point
to it as the real reason for their present low standard of courage, efficiency or
moral principles, and their degeneration from the level of even a century or two
ago, adding that the next generation produced from such drug-steeped stock will
be even worse. The town of Maku is reported to be a particularly bad spot,
where the middle-class residents no longer get any pleasure from smoking the
drug, but now inject themselves with morphia or sniff cocaine—which they seem
to procure with ease. European Governments have in some cases countered this
menace, but it seems somewhat hopeless for the present type of Persian
Administration to do so. I am told that an official position in the Economic
Section of the Ministry of Finance which controls the sale and supply of opium
is one of the most remunerative of all, because of the “ squeeze ” between the
official price and the price which numberless addicts will pay.
I have, &c.
F. A. G. COOK.