891.6363/12–644: Telegram
The Ambassador in Iran (Morris) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 8—9:45 p.m.]
907. ReEmbs 900 of December 5. On December 2 Ambassador Harriman91 and I paid a call upon the British Ambassador. While we were talking, Sir Reader was called to the telephone and informed [Page 481] that the Majlis had just passed the law forbidding negotiations with foreigners on oil concessions. Sir Reader, both by word and in manner, registered complete surprise and I am confident that he had no previous knowledge of this action and therefore any stories to the effect that this measure was British-inspired I think are without foundation.
From the British Embassy Mr. Harriman and I proceeded to the Russian Embassy to call upon the Ambassador and Vice Commissar Kavtaradze.92 Interpretation was carried out by Major Pantuhoff of General Connolly’s92a staff and an English-speaking secretary of the Russian Embassy was also present. We remained about an hour with the Soviet representatives and the atmosphere was entirely cordial insofar as Russian-American affairs are concerned, some aspects of which were briefly touched upon.
The attitude of the Soviet officials towards the Government of Persia was one of contempt and sarcasm intermingled with an air of injured innocence. Ambassador Maximov was the more outspoken relative to relations with Persia. He also had just learned of the action of the Majlis. He expressed the view that it was the United States and the Soviets who were the losers by this action and addressing himself to me by name made a broad hint that we might put our heads together to contemplate defensive steps. It was pretty clear he had in mind that the British being already established would benefit by the exclusion of Russian and American interests in regard to oil. He disclosed somewhat his line of thought by asserting that new elections for the Majlis would have to be held within 5 months and it was possible to expect that Deputies might be elected who would not hold the views on oil concessions which the present Deputies appeared to possess as judged by their resolution. There can be little doubt that he was thinking of influencing the selection of Deputies and perhaps meant to implant the same thought in my mind. He spoke of the wretchedness of the Persian working classes which he attributed to the exploitation by the 500 (according to his enumeration) ruling families who owned the land and exchanged governmental positions amongst themselves in rotation. He suggested that such a government could not be of an enduring nature. At this juncture Kavtaradze interrupted to highlight the conversation by quoting from Lord Byron to the effect that while waiting for empires to crumble slowly it occurred that an empire might disappear overnight. [Page 482] I have so far been unable to find the quotation. I do not know whether Lord Byron was correctly cited. However, rightly or wrongly, there is no doubt as to what Kavtaradze had in mind.
Mr. Harriman tactfully attempted to find out when Kavtaradze thought of returning to Moscow. The Commissar replied good humoredly that he was enjoying a vacation here which was doing him a lot of good. That is about as far as we got on that point. Ambassador Harriman was shown the recently unveiled plaque in commemoration of the historic meeting of last November93 and we took our departure in an atmosphere of cordiality.
Sent to Department, repeated to Moscow, Cairo, Baghdad and London.
- Ambassador Harriman was returning to the Soviet Union from the United States.↩
- For Ambassador Harriman’s report of this conversation, see last paragraph of his telegram 4771, December 11, 6 p.m., p. 354.↩
- Maj. Gen. Donald H. Connolly, Commander of the Persian Gulf Service Command.↩
- The Tehran Conference.↩