861.24/1311: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union ( Dooman ) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 9—12:10 p.m.]
241. I was called to the Foreign Office on Saturday by the Chief of the American Section, who, after stating that it was his unpleasant duty to inform me of “anti-Soviet activities by American representatives in North Iran” read to me through his interpreter an aide-mémoire substantially as follows:
The following trustworthy data concerning certain activities of American representatives in Iranian Azerbaidzhan are in the possession of the Peoples Commissariat for Foreign Affairs.
[Page 338]On February 12, 1943, Mr. Kuniholm the American Consul at Tabriz and Mr. Vivant [Vivian]37 the American Adviser, called upon the Governor General of Azerbaidzhan38 and conversed with him about the province. In the conversation Mr. Kuniholm, referring to the food difficulties and explaining them by the purchases of grain and fodder for Red Army units, declared rudely that the stay of the said units is not called for by military necessity and that their detention in Azerbaidzhan pursues some special aims. In the Consul’s opinion the Iranian Government had acted incorrectly by signing an agreement for the delivery of wheat and barley for Red Army units. The Consul stated his intention to raise the question to the American Minister in Tehran about the necessity of rupture of said agreement.
At the same time Mr. Vivian called to him Mr. Jurabchi, a representative of the management of the local shoe factory, and Mr. Baftai, technical director of the Iran shoe factory, which have manufactured overcoat cloth and shoes for the Red Army and interested himself in the condition of said enterprises. Moreover Mr. Vivian recommended Messrs. Jurabchi and Baftai to cease production of overcoat cloth and army shoes for the USSR at their factories, referring to the fact that the local market is suffering from great want of said goods, although it is well known to Soviet representatives that the production capacity of said factories considerably exceeds the requirements of the local market for the articles they manufacture.
The Peoples Commissariat hopes the Embassy will inform the State Department of the foregoing and will direct its attention to the actions unfriendly to the USSR of the above mentioned American consular representatives in Iran.
Repeated to Moscow and Tehran.