391.1164/105: Telegram
The Chargé in Iran (Engert) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:17 a.m.]
114. Shortly after the settlement of the school question last August a rumor reached me from two different sources that the Government’s action against the schools had been due to “Soviet intrigue”. I considered the rumor too fantastic to merit serious thought but in the [Page 534] light of subsequent events described in my 103, September 18, 10 a.m. and 112, October 3, 2 p.m.,4 I now feel that it cannot be entirely disregarded. It is quite possible that Russia which is not permitted to have any schools in Iran informed the Iranian Government that it would insist on the same rights as other nations. And the Iranian Government rather than risk resumption of poisonous propaganda which has always emanated from Soviet schools, but unable to afford to annoy Moscow, then promised to eliminate also the remaining foreign educational institutions.
Although Iranians are always apt to take shortsighted view of events, they probably realized in this instance that they were on the eve of a renewal of Russian efforts to win Iran—like China—to communism and therefore wanted to prolong breathing space in the hope that the Soviets were only play-acting to frighten the democracies.
- Neither printed.↩