Coll 28/112A ‘Persia. Tabriz – Monthly despatches of internal situation in Azerbaijan & misc. reports.’ [‎594v] (1191/1237)

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favour of Azerbaijan rights and independence, culture, language, justice, &c. r
but argues in favour of the poor and oppressed, against hoarding and the dangers
of the continual increase in prices here. The other newspaper, Shahin, also cries
out about the poverty rife here, the indifference of the rich, the scandal of the
sugar rationing, the unbridled corruption in every branch of public life, with
scurrilous attacks on the ex-Shah (including the princes and princesses) and 1^
dishonest and cruel administration, especially the gendarmerie.
11. One awkward question has been brought to light in the shape of a fund
of 8 million rials raised a few years ago in Tabriz from a small tax on bread,
and intended for the needs of the town and its poor. The money had somehow
disappeared to Tehran, but such a noise has been made that the authorities there
have promised to send it back, together with a grant of 4 million rials more for
helping and finding work for the unemployed here. Unfortunately, even if these
promises are fulfilled, no one expects any but a small percentage of the proper
sums to reach their real end, so terrible is the peculation and corruption from
top to bottom of the Administration. However, funds are to be advanced to
factory An East India Company trading post. owners to enable them to employ more weavers and spinners and leather
workers, and there may be some left over for unspecified public works. One
might have thought that the wealthy factory An East India Company trading post. owners could have raised funds in
the ordinary way through the National Bank of Persia if necessary, but no doubt
the much-reviled Administration and officialdom wish to gain a little apprecia
tion and applause in this manner, apart from the fact that the said owners show
no such public spirit or sympathy with the unemployed whatever. At present
their nerves are on edge with the thought that bolshevism may spread or is
spreading here, that the Soviet intends gradually to undermine and then, in spite
of all denials, take over this province of Persia, and that, in any case, there will
be an appalling clash in the Caucasus in the coming spring from which everyone
here, and especially themselves, will suffer. Disquieting stories are coming
from Rezaieh regarding an incipient reign of terror caused by a so-called
committee of Kurdish, Azerbaijan, Armenian and Assyrian roughs, led by an
ex-chauffeur, whose idea is said to be to drive out the Tehran Administration and
establish a workers’ and peasants’ soviet under Eussian auspices. There have
been several murders both of officials, gendarmes and private citizens, and it is
learnt that large numbers of middle-class residents, including Government
officials, are leaving the town and district and coming to Tabriz because of their
fear of the worsening situation there.
I have, &c.
F. A. G. COOK.
Enclosure 2.
Sir R. Bullard to Consul Cook.
(No. 263. Confidential.)
Dear Cook, Tehran, February 5, 1942.
YOUR despatch No. 1 of the 12th January, paragraphs 8 and 9.
The Turkish Ambassador recently complained to me that the Turkish Consul
at Rezaieh seemed to be alarmist and subject to something very like persecution
mania, and for that and other reasons I was certain that he would not approve
of the attitude which you attribute to the Turkish Consul in Tabriz. I therefore
told him in confidence of the remark which M. Ramazanoglou made to you
(middle of paragraph 8) and of his weakness for malicious rumours, the
ambassador said he was greatly obliged, as it confirmed fears which he had
already formed about M. Ramazanoglou. He said that he had recently written
to him very stiffly, saying that it was impossible to come to any conclusion from
the despatches from Tabriz what the situation was, the most alarmist reports
being mixed up with the blandest optimism; and he showed me in confidence a
telegram written in even stiffer terms which he had sent to Tabriz a few days
before. The telegram instructed the consul to keep in mind the declared policy
of the Turkish Government in regard to Persia and not on any account to indulge
in any activity or to take any initiative in the affairs of the country, but to adhere
faithfully to the role of impartial observer and reporter.
I am sending copies of this letter to the Foreign Office and to His Majesty’s
Ambassadors at Angora and Kuibyshev.
Yours sincerely,
R. W. BULLARD.