891.24/395: Telegram
The Minister in Iran (Dreyfus) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11:59 p.m.]
242. Bread situation in Tehran remains critical. Internal stocks are nearing exhaustion and wheat from United States has not yet begun to flow into Tehran in sufficient volume. Several thousand tons have arrived or are about to arrive at southern ports destined for wheat pool to feed Tehran, AIOC33 and Allied labor. In view of great and inexplicable delays in bringing wheat to Tehran over the railway I have sent Byron MacDonald of Lend-Lease office southward to investigate and endeavor to institute a system which will insure rapid and regular deliveries.
It seems apparent to me that present agreed allocation of 200 tons a day northward for Iranian civil use on southern section of railway is woefully insufficient and that revision upward should be made as soon as Americans take over remainder of this line34 and increase capacity of railway. British allocations officer agrees that for present [Page 611] 160 tons of wheat will be moved northward daily which item alone will almost exhaust the 200–ton allocation. Since there was such great delay in shipping the 25,000 tons of wheat I believe that bread situation here will show little improvement for several weeks.