File 200/1928 Pt 6 'Anglo-Persian Treaty Negotiations' [‎18r] (29/642)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
PERSIA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[E 3827/18/34
j i J„lv 24, 1931.
! 51 92.4
L
Section 2.
| U 1 J
No. 1
Si/- U. Cline to Mr. A. Henderson.—(Received July 24.)
(No. 354. Confidential.) . , , .
o- Gulhek, July o, 19*51.
I PAID a farewell visit yesterday afternoon to Teymourtache at the old
Telegraph Department house in Gulhek, which he recently purchased.
2. His Highness began by telling me that after arranging for the disposal
of the Persian Crown Prince in Switzerland or the south of I ranee he proposed
to pay a visit to England, particularly with a view to placing his 16-year-old
dau°'hter in an English school. 1 learn, however, on the best authority that his
Highness has stated his intention to resume negotiations for the treaty in London
together with Ansari, the newly-appointed Minister. .
3. I then spoke to him on the subject of Anglo-1 ersian relations and
referred to the reply which His Majesty gave to me the day before when I
enquired the reason why Persian officials were forbidden to attend celebrations at
foreign consulates on their national fete days. I said I could not help find mg
His Maiesty's reply very unconvincing. What was His Majesty afraid ot that
he should authorise'the issue of such instructions to Persian officials? V\ as it ms
wish that all social intercourse between foreign consuls and Persians should
cease, except in so far as their official duties required it ? Everybody realised
that Persia was passing through a phase of somewhat extreme nationalism and
the impression was growing among my colleagues that it was the definite wi»i
of the Persian Government to get rid of foreign firms out of 1 ersia and replace
them, presumably, by Persian agents. Recent legislation which involved new
taxation, appeared to be aimed at the foreigner. The article in the Income Tax
Law' with regard to the tax payable by companies practically only involved the
Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Persian companies, to all intents and purposes
dufnot exist. Again, the new registration tax to be levied on the paid-up cap it;'
of each company' would really only hit the foreigner. It seemed to me doubtful
whether a firm like the Ottoman Bank, who, to my knowledge, had made no profits
in Persia during the last twelve months, would find it w’orth while to pay several
hundred pounds for registration. Was it the object of the Persian Government
to see the disappearance of an institution like the Ottoman Ban'.
Monopoly Law had, up to the present, resulted in the closing down of three o
the chief foreign shops in Tehran and of the Italian Transport Company, f
said quite frankly I failed to understand the advantage to Persia of the present
attitude towards foreigners. His Highness then entered into a long explanation
in which he endeavoured to show that recent Persian legislation was not anti-
foreign, it was merely pro-Persian; that Persia had suffered so long vmder the
domination of the foreigner that it was high time she should show complete
independence—that was His Majesty’s wish. I then returned to the questm ,
more especially, of Anglo-Persian relations. I said that on my return m March
I had found the general atmosphere so completely changed since I left, o } .
months before, that I was at pains to account for it. The recall of J"4 ®ha ,
British officials had been demanded; the most outrageously libellous attacks had
been made on the oil company by a journalist who was an intimate frien
Highness and who regularly accompanied the Shah on his tours The <
Monopoly Act not only nullified our Tariff Autonomy Treaty, but m one of the
articles of the regulations attached to it most definitely infringed the arrange
ment come to with the Imperial Bank a year before by monopolising e >-c han o
transactions with the National Bank The recent speech of the
Governor of Kerman, that Persians should not have anything to do \Mt
foreigners could really onlv refer to British subjects; the British was the only
consulate in Kerman, where there was also a branch of the ra P^ ial '
branch of the Church Missionary Society and a number of Indian traders, there
were practically no other foreigners there. Finally, since my return no reference
[200 aa—2J