891.00/11–144: Telegram
The Ambassador in Iran (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:50 p.m.]
804. Measures which smack of Hitlerian methods continue to be used in increasing crescendo by the Soviet authorities here. About 8 o’clock on October 30 a serious demonstration took place in Tabriz following upon demands made by the Tudeh (Communist) Party on the Iranian Government to reverse its policy on the petroleum concession demanded by the Russians. A crowd of Iranians most of whom are employed by Russian authorities assembled under the auspices of the Tudeh Party and demonstrated before the police station and the Government Administration Building at Tabriz, These demonstrators were under the leadership of the chief representative of the Tudeh Party in Tabriz. An Iranian officer was beaten up by the crowd in front of the police station and the Iranian police fired on the crowd wounding several people. The crowd then attempted to storm both the police station and the Administration Building. At this juncture Russian troops intervened and dispersed the crowd. About the same time there was an organized attempt at jail break from the city’s prison. The Russian military disarmed the Iranian police and also put a guard around the Iranian Army military barracks. This guard is still maintained and the Iranian soldiers are not permitted to leave the barracks. Iranian officers are permitted to come and go from the building but unarmed.
The shops at Resht have been closed in so-called protest against the Iranian Government’s decision not to grant the Russian petroleum concession. Rumors of disorder are trickling in from other points north. The Prime Minister apprehends the possibility of further trouble in Tehran next Friday.
The Russian Ambassador and Kavtaradze continue to refuse contact with Prime Minister Saed. Communication between the Russian Embassy and the Government is being conducted by the Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Ahy at present in Tehran who is acting as intermediary. The Russian Ambassador also avoids contact with the Court of [and?] the Shah. Last night Mr. Ahy asked Messrs. Maximov and Kavtaradze for an explanation of the Russian interference at Tabriz. They denied that there had been any interference on the part of the Russians.
The facts about the demonstration cited above are reported to me personally by Prime Minister Saed and by Court Minister Ala and are confirmed by a telegram from the British Acting Consul General at [Page 465] Tabriz to his Ambassador here. A report from Consul Ebling79 was requested yesterday by telegram but has not been received. I am trying to get in touch with him through our military sources as I can suspect that nothing [anything?] he may have sent by Persian telegraph may have been held up.
The Prime Minister has just told me and the British Ambassador that he plans to offer his resignation this afternoon. He believes that this will relieve the tension, at least temporarily. The Shah will accept the resignation reluctantly unless he is given encouragement by the British and American Governments to resist Russian interference.
I have just received the Department’s 649 of October 30, 10 p.m.80 instructing the Embassy at Moscow to make representation to the Soviet authorities and stating that the American Government will not concur in any action which would constitute undue interference in the internal affairs of Iran. That very interference is taking place at the present moment. The British Ambassador has shown me a copy of the Foreign Office’s instructions to Lord Halifax81 suggesting a concerted representation to the Soviet Government. The British Ambassador here has not received any instructions up to the present to encourage the Iranian Government to resist Soviet oppression.
While the Iranian Government deserves our full sympathy in the circumstances which exist, I personally feel that it would be a very grave step to offer it any type of encouragement to resist Russian aggression on the matters at issue unless we are prepared to back up to the ultimate limit the Iranian Government in its opposition. That is something which it appears to me might precipitate a very great divergence, if not a split, at the present time in Soviet-American relations. I should be happy to receive with the utmost urgency any instructions or comment that the Department may feel in a position to give me in regard to policy. I have maintained up to the present a sympathetic but noncommittal and negative attitude to Iranian insistences for support in their dilemma.
Sent to Department repeated to Moscow and Baghdad.