891.50 Seven-Year Plan/7–1249: Telegram
The Ambassador in Iran (Wiley) to the Secretary of State
907. Department will recall that Ambassador Ala several weeks ago asked for direct economic assistance to extent of $500,000,000. He indicated at that time that I knew all about matter and would transmit similar request with my blessing. As Department was informed, I knew nothing about matter. All that had happened was that Foreign Minister once remarked that he would some day send me note formally requesting aid, statement which did not call for nor elicit any response from me.
He has now handed to me a note requesting gratuitous economic assistance of approximately $147,000,000. The note reads as follows:
“In pursuance of my repeated conversations with Your Excellency concerning the essential and urgent needs of this Empire and necessity of financial aid by the American authorities, I have the honor to bring the following to Your Excellency’s attention:
Your Excellency is not unaware of the extent to which Iran has suffered innumerable losses after the last world war which brought us rack and ruin and great hardships towards the attainment of final victory. Your Excellency is not unaware to the extent to which Iran is in need of immediate economic and social reforms to enable her, in the light of the present world exigencies, to become reequipped and prepared in such a manner as to dispel, withstand and resist potential dangers.
Fortunately the official authorities of the American Government, too, are aware of the extraordinary importance of the present situation in Iran and have on various occasions made specific promises time and again that they will make every effort to meet our needs, comply with our requests and lend us support. Now, on the strength of these same official statements by the great Government of the US and the express promises they have made to render us necessary assistance, and with special reference to Article 4 of the speech by the President of the US relating to the necessity of lending technical and financial assistance for the improvement and betterment of the condition of backward countries, we expect your powerful nation which is the patron and protector of human liberty and culture to pay special attention to our imperative needs and lend us prompt assistance in meeting those needs.
The said needs which represent our barest necessities and minimum requirements (and which will be chiefly technical equipment and machinery and financial needs impossible to secure in Iran and with Iranian money) will total approximately $147,000,000 as follows:
- Industries and factories—$35,000,000.
- Highways and railroads—$37,500,000.
- Public hygiene—$20,280,000.
- Posts and telegraphs and communications—$5,370,000.
- Education—$9,550,000.
- Agriculture and irrigation—$28,217,521.
- Alimentation, tobacco, silo and excise
taxes—$11,000,000.
- (Note: This presumably means equipment for food, tobacco and distilling industries. It is being checked.)
- Total—$146,917,521.
The detailed and itemized list of said requirements include the minimum essential needs of the country at the present time which have no connection with the Seven-Year Plan of the Empire. This is what we need to be able in some measure to restore our country to its state before it was occupied by the Allied forces on August/September 1941 and to raise the living standard of the people of Iran who are confronted with the menace of Bolshevism and Communism. As you notice, this sum is partly needed for the railway and landing fields which were worn out or completely ruined during the sojourn of Allied forces in Iran, especially during the years when the Iranian railways were at the absolute disposal of, and being used by, the American troops. There is sound evidence to prove that the railway and the landing fields needed urgent repairs. It is for this reason that they should be classed with military needs of first class importance, and immediate aid be granted for their repair gratuitously.
In conclusion, I beg to add that during your stay in Iran and as a result of your study of Iran’s social condition, Your Excellency has definitely well realized the delicate position of this country because of its low standard of life. Your Excellency is well aware to what extent the national life of Iran is exposed to danger. In view of the foregoing circumstances and the promises made in this respect, I expect Your Excellency will be so kind as to invite the attention of the American Government authorities to the urgent necessity of granting this immediate aid, and in the light of the information which you have of the financial capacity of Iran, I hope you will be good enough to take prompt and efficacious steps which will be greatly appreciated by the Iranian Government.”
The enclosures to the note, which are very voluminous, are being translated and will be forwarded by pouch.1
The Department’s attention is particularly invited to the third paragraph of the note in which reference is made to “specific promises time and again that the US would make every effort to meet Iranian needs and comply with Iranian request. [”] There have been absolutely no specific promises of any kind made since my arrival here.
The situation in regard to getting as big a hand-out as possible from the US is reaching the utmost confusion, proceeding as it does from the lack of any agreement or cohesion of thought among the Iranians themselves. In another telegram, I have reported my second meeting with Mr. Ebtehaj.2 He maintains that Iran does not need [Page 542] economic assistance but in effect must be put on a parity with Turkey in the matter of military assistance. Further, he is obstinately op posed to any World Bank loan. The Shah on the other hand is in favor of a World Bank loan and also wants direct economic assistance besides very substantial direct military assistance. The Foreign Minister now presents what apparently is his own idea and which seems to, from first study, cover many items included in the Seven-Year Plan, although he states that his list has no connection with the Seven-Year Plan. There appears to have been little coordination between the gratuitous assistance envisaged in the Foreign Minister’s note and the projects mentioned in the Prime Minister’s letter to me, as reported Embtel 558, April 26, unless it is in the fact that both exaggerate Iran’s war damages and both lay the condition of the Iranian railways at the Allied doorstep. As a matter of information, the Prime Minister has on several occasions even brushed aside any attempt to discuss the substance of his letter. He apparently is working on the premise that he got his request in first and can obviously claim as much credit as any one else in connection with American assistance, if any, to Iran.
In view hurt feelings and resentment re direct military aid, suggest question direct economic aid be handled with greatest tact.