1942: Iran

Practically roadless in the modern sense, Iran in 1942 herself became the main land highway between Russia and her allies. At the same time, the country of the Shah blocked the Axis trail between Europe and Asia. This 'Land of the Aryans,' remembering Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes and days when she stretched from the Indus to the Aegean, became again in the past year both geographically and economically a world figure.

With a new Shah, Iran in 1942 experienced four different governments, signed treaties with Great Britain and Russia, engaged in a Lease-Lend agreement with the United States, strengthened her ties with others of the United Nations and moved against the Axis. Domestic problems were augmented by foreign troops on her soil, by thousands of Polish refugees, a rise in living costs.

The year began with Shah (or King) Mohammed Reza Pahlevi enthroned only three and a half months. This 23-year old ruler became king upon the abdication and banishment of his father, King Reza Pahlevi, to Mauritius Island by combined political and military action of Great Britain and Russia; they arrived in Iran with troops and armored cars, by their unity ending the king's long pitting of one against the other. The young king, educated in Switzerland and a man of touching simplicity, is married to the sister of King Farouk of Egypt. One of his first acts as sovereign was to restore his father's land holdings and private fortune to the state.

Though he was quoted as considering his land an 'occupied country,' he also realized it as the 'key route linking Britain and Russia'; though he regretted that the Anglo-Russian-Iranian Treaty was not signed before the occupation, he was politically — and geographically — favorable to these Allies; and while realizing he was powerless under democratic procedures to get Teheran's Chamber of Deputies to sign the Treaty, he hoped they would do so. On Jan. 30, 1942, the Treaty was signed, reaffirming the Atlantic Charter. Britain and Russia promised respect for Iranian territorial sovereignty and political independence; to protect her from any attack; to withdraw within six months after all hostilities have ended, and to do all that is possible to safeguard the economic existence of the Iranian people against difficulties resulting from the war. Iran under the Treaty takes responsibility for domestic order; grants unrestricted right (for the passage of troops or supplies) to use, maintain, guard and in some instances to control all means of communication throughout Iran; undertakes to furnish all possible assistance to obtain material and labor; and grants Britain and the Soviet the right to maintain land, sea, and air forces on Iranian territory. The Treaty was received without enthusiasm by the Iranians. They felt it drew them nearer to war. They had little faith in the British, and were suspicious of Russia.

Rumors and developments marked the first six months of the year. With respect to the United States, on May 2, Iran and the United States signed a Lend-Lease Agreement. Relations with Great Britain, aside from the signing of the Treaty with Russia, included a late 1941 British shipment of wheat into Iran; the arrival from Britain of more rolling stock for the railways; and the placing, on Jan. 16, of Lieut. Gen. Sir Claude. J. E. Auchinleck in command of British and Indian forces in Iraq and Iran. In August it was reported that Britain had an estimated 150,000 men in Iran, supplemented by 10 divisions of Russians in the Caucasus and in Northern Iran.

Relations were severed with Vichy in February, with Japan in April. In June, relations were opened with China, and a new rapprochement with Czechoslovakia eventuated in the setting up of a Czech legation in Teheran. Russia gave Iran assistance in repulsing the Kurds in March, which led to reports of better Turko-Soviet relations with the lessening of Iranian disorders; the United States Ambassador in Ankara is said to have employed his good offices.

In the Moslem world, stirring into new demands, as are the millions of Asia, Iran stands pivotally in the area where East and West meet. She hopes to strengthen the ties between herself and the Moslem States of Afghanistan, Iraq and Turkey, as begun in the Saadabad Pact. She has become a nation vital as a connecting link between the Allies. On Dec. 5, agreement was reached by Iran, Great Britain and the United States, under which the last named nations will supply Iran with wheat and other cereals to bring up her stocks to minimum requirements. The acute shortage of cargo ships make such an action a sacrifice but the first instalments were to be sent from British Army resources in the East. The agreement was important to Iran; for 80 per cent of her population subsists largely on bread and occasional fruit. Russia was kept informed of the agreement and will help later if possible.