Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, Volume V, Part 1

761.91/8–348: Telegram

The Ambassador in France (Caffery) to the Secretary of State

secret

Paris, August 3, 1948—7 p. m.

4017. Mytel 4001, August 3.¹ The Shah says that the Soviet Government has made a triple protest to Tehran:

1. Against the arrival of American materiel in Iran;

2. Against the arrest of Soviet nationals by the Hajir Government;

3. Against the decision taken by the Iranian Government to change governors in the provinces of Azerbaijan and Khorrasan. (These governors, says the Shah, were sympathetic to the Soviets.)

Soviet Government has ordered all Soviet citizens and their families to leave Iran. The latter are at present embarking on a ship in the Caspian Sea.

Shots have been exchanged between frontier posts and there have been some victims.

The Tehran Government expects the early departure of the Soviet Ambassador.²

Caffery

1. Not printed; it advised of information from the French Foreign Office that the Shah had received very disquieting news from Tehran concerning Soviet activities during the last few days (761.91/8–348).
2. Tehran had advised, on July 31, that “Recent exodus Soviet dependents from Iran, while at first glance alarming, is probably result of closing Soviet elementary and secondary schools in Tehran and Tabriz. Local communist, whose children were registered in Soviet school, states closing was necessary due to ‘decision Soviet Government not to allow children Soviet nationals to be educated abroad because of possibility capitalistic contamination’.” (telegram 908, 701.6191/7–3148). On August 4 Tehran transmitted the view of an Iranian “high staff officer” that the imminent departures of the Soviet Ambassador and Soviet Military Attaché Razin for the Soviet Union portended “a diminution of diplomatic relations of significant nature.” (telegram 917, 891.20 Mission/8–448)