File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎328r] (303/1080)

agaras
15
over and above the value for the same. For the last forty years these nations
have taken away some 20 to 30 erores of tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. in silver and gold. When
Persia mves eightv crores worth of raw material to the foreigners she is obliged
to purchase merchandise worth one hundred to one hundred and twenty crores
oftomans. It is upon the poor workmen and labourers of Persia that the
burden of this sort of bargain falls.
The workmen and labourers are toiling day and night while the fruits of
their labour are expended on the luxuries of the sordid imperialists.
Moreover, the home manufactures which our workpeople used once to
produce have no value in competition with foreign merchandise. Our home
arts and trade have vanished. Foreign competition has forced the Persian
workmen to abandon their industries, to become unemployed and demoralise .
Or, as an alternative, hunger compels them to leave their motherland and to
seek asylum in foreign countries, such as the Caucasus and Turkestan, there to
create wealth for the capitalists. Those who are unable to go abroad fall into
extreme indigence or gather round the robber khawanin to become a source of
trouble and disturbance in the country.
In addition to having to endure the tyrannies of imperialists, the poor
villagers of Persia are remorselessly squeezed by cruel and unjust subordinate
officials.
In order to stop such oppression the Communist Party of Persia consider
it their immediate duty to bring the following rulings into force :
(1) Firstly, important centres, such as Tabriz, Tehran, the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ,
and the Caspian Sea must be connected by a railway system.
(2) An agricultural bank must be founded for the betterment of the condi
tions of life of workmen and labourers.
(3) A co-operative bank must be inaugurated for the improvement of inte
rior economics.
(4) Kanats and irrigation canals must be dug to improve the lot of agri
cultural labourers.
(5) Assistance should be given to factories for the improvement
of trade.
(6) The estates of all large landholders should be confiscated and become
the property of the Government.
(7) The estates of the smaller landholders should be confiscated and
divided among the villages.
(81 If such measures are insufficient for the needs of the village communi
ties the deficit in land should be made up by allotments from Government
holdings.
(9) Nomad tribesmen must be given land for cultivation to preclude them
from the necessity of living in kibitkas, etc.
KEVENUE.
There must be a change in the system of revenue.
(1) The establishment of a State Bank with branches in all cities,
districts, and provinces.
(2) A reduction of the revenue paid by labourers, workmen, and
cultivators.
(3) The abolition of all local taxes on human beings and animals.
(4) A revision of revenue derived from incomes.
(5) The abolition of all race privileges.