خارجي ٥٠٠٠/٤١ (٣) "بلاد فارس - الوضع العام (سبتمبر وأكتوبر ١٩٤١)" [و‎‎١‎٣] (٤٦٦/٢٥)

!3
8,
thio story, which I hnve heard f*t>ra no other ctource*
4, # uoh of the oonTeroatlon wm the «ort of idle talk
&xmt the war that roight aom fma angr JUMKS^iarianMA
of twenty-three. X noticed Umt Ida ^ajeaty wsua greatly intoxv
«mted in the exploits of the Koyal liavy end the koyml ..ir *orce.
:e referred in pertlonlar to th^f work of iritloh auhmrinee in the
iedittrrazMMUi aa partioularly difficult and dangerous* Hie know
ledge of irl tleh aircraft aewned to 'ae ^ood 9 and he referred to
the enicine-power and ptrfomnnee of various typee* He epoke with
great admiration of rimicirk, but he eeeaed to believe that the
evacuation had been effected by the Boy&l Navy alone, *so I aeiaed
the opportunity to preach an indirect sermon of the kind which
the country and it® ruler *o badly need, by painting the episode
&& an eimaeple of voluntary co-operation of civilians answering
an appeal for help. 2fe« 3hah sighed, and said to the Minister
for foreign Affairs - ^riviouifly, na X thought i *vh t you nee what
strength mean© to a country". It was then, I think, that he
spoke with a&nirution of the patience and eourage with which the
great cltlee of ngland had borne the weight of Osman hontblng.
$• His Hajcety spoke alimoet with awe of the power of the
Osman art^r, and did act, ss I suggested to hiia, do justiss to
the tenacious resistance of the Soviet forces. He c^preaeed the
greatest contempt for the Xtaliann and for what he considered the
poor showing imd* by all t)tree of the Italian arraed foi^cs, and
he ©aids "It ie true that the Iranian array has not had a chance
to show its value, lut I imict aay that the Italians do not
deserve to be called a great power". He mid that the Allies
would find the Iranian tansy of greet values the men Mrs munif
icent, and the officers too were very $oodt they not only went
through the military school but they were trained in this and
that. He declared that Iren could furnish a force of from tlxree
to fourhundred thousand men,-though the modern equipment was
sivort, as mush h&d been ojM»red from aenmny and Sweden had not
arrive this defici mey however could be made UP from .vineries*
I could only cutest that the claims of Rn&sl* would naturally
co te first, but ills Hajosty wms not at all diasouraged and ©aids
the same.^ i-heii the draft treaty i© submitted to the
Iranian Oovemient it win be seen, thnt the r61e for which the
Iranian army is cast will be, if disappointing to the hah,
much jaorc satisfactory to the people than the nhah 1 ® plan to
provide a huix® art^y to fight the uwraans.
'ihe bhjah 1 » preoccupation with ar^iy natters la perhaps
explicable by the fact that he himself west ttfirough tlic Kilitnry
College and that the aamay received so much of lUc father's
attention and interest, but it is distressing that he should be
completely unaware of the n&uner in which it iUtsiniegrated, in
-mny instances wlUiout comiss even remotely in contact with an
e-aery. It la evident that he is also unaware of the real charac
ter of the Iranian officer. It is true that he spoke of corruption
In thevarmy, but he soomed to think that this would disappear
with an increase In pay, snd he evidently does not realise that
the officers of his army are on the whole not only venal, but
brutal to their mm, incompetent and cowardly, ftad the Minister
for foreign Stairm not boon present I should have liked to cay
something to His hajesty about the opportunities which a ruler of
this country might find to ^courage the d^volopnieiit of character
in young people, after a 1 ng period In which material progress
1ms been the standard.
/ilt>M?ugh it is true that the *h»h mmmd on this occasion
to be too exclusively military in hi® interests, he did refer to
the necessity for ref onus in civil matters. He is in fact taking