File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎575r] (797/1080)

of the Hus so-i ersian treaty* A telegram was also addressed
to Moscow
Mews was received in Meshed of a coup d^tat in Kirmanshah
in circumstances parallel to those enacted in Meshed ~ the
protagonist being similarly a major of gendarmes.
• A report from the correspondent at this
centre da'ced 14th April is descriptive of the arrival in the
port of a Bolshevik trading delegation consisting of four
Hussi an and four Turks. They held several meetings ashore
and in the craft that brought them but did no business.
They spent several occasions drinking with a local Persian
official, and were awaiting the arriv 1 of the Governor of
Astrabad, who, however, send an assistant. The chief man
of the party is described as an artist, his assistant is a
smith; neither has any idea of commercial matters. The
assistant declares that despite the Bolsheviks 1 victories
{they must be defeated in the end by the scarcity of food.
They have persuaded the populace that food has been required
for this or that front - the war with Denikin, with Poland
with Arangel. At the termination of these campaigns they
have not been able to relieve the food crisis, and since the
peasantry are not disposed to part with their stocks in
return for paper money, outbursts of popular feeling, lead
ing to counter revolution, may be expected. A soldier is
reported to have addressed a meeting in the course of which
he st ted that in the days of Nikolai soldiers had suffic-
i
ient means wherewith to support their families. Under
Trot ski’s regime they were being killed at the front while
their families were dying of hunger at home. He advocated
the killing of all Jews that Bussia might find salvation .
This smith would appear to be an efficient anti-Bolshevik
propagandist.
There is a dearth of news from the fontier. everything is
quiet in Masandaran owing to the presence of Government
forces.