GERMANS IN IRAN

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 March 1937, Page 3

GERMANS IN IRAN

GREAT STRIDES MADE

The recent visit of Dr. Schacht to Teheran, following immediately on hjs stay at Angora, may well set us wondering how far the German tentacles are spreading again in the Middle East, writes W. V. Emanuel in the “Spectator.” Dr. Schacht never visits a foreign capital for nothing, and

German trade and influence in Iran are presumably going to benefit by his excursion. How strong is that influence already? In Tabriz, the second largest city of Iran, situated only SO miles from the Russian frontier, about 90 per cent, of the 50 dr 60 European residents are Germans, the English being represented by only three families. All the new industrial concerns which have sprung up there in the last decade, the silk factory, the tannery, the glass works, the tile works, the carpet factory, have German managers and machinery. Even the rather light beer which H.M.’s'.Consul surprisingly produced for us was the product of a local brewery set up and managed by Germans. It is the same in other towns. In Yezd, the burntup city of the Zoroastrians on the edge of the Great Salt Desert, two of the five Europeans who contrive to live there are Germans. At Teheran, in the Rue Stamboul, is a Shop devoted almost exclusively to the sale of German books and newspapers. No other nation has such a shop. There is also a German barber and a German clothes store. The latter is managed by a refugee, it is true, but is none the less a favourite meetingplace for the large German, Austrian, and Swiss colony. (Even so, it seems a trifle tactless of the Legation to have ordered their large Swastika flag from this shop.)

. , TEXTILE FACTORIES 'Tn the fifteen new textile factories of Isfahan—Allah preserve that green city of loveliness from becoming an industrial centre—most of the management and machinery is German. On board the Baku steamer I met a delightful Berliner, who was an accountant in one of them. He liked the Iranians, accepted their different, standards, and has done his best to get to-know them. Tn this he represented one school of thought among Europeans living in Iran. His compatriot on hoard, who had some mysterious job at Kasvin, represented the opposite attitude which is unfortunately common. He could not. bear the Iranians and their slipshod ways, and spent, the voyage, grumbling about conditions. He was like the German road-engineer whom I met' in Afghanistan. After two years in the country he still knew next to nothing of the language, had never taken his wife into,the bazaars, and had no interests beyond his immediate job, which’he worked at with Teutonic thoroughness. His room, like his head, was swept bare. The only decorations were a Nazi sword and a photograph of Hitler. . Tn the rapid development of Iranian transport, Germans have played an important part. Tn the air Junkers secured a monopoly in 1927. and ran extensive services to all the larger towns. On the Teheran-Meshed route their up-to-date version of the Magic Carpet carried hundreds of pilgrims, who for centuries have toiled to Meshed on foot or donkey. In 19.32 this contract expired, and the Iranian Government, for a variety of reasons, mainly financial, refuser! to renew it. The new air service, which the Gov-

eminent started last Autumn, is being carried on by Iranian pilots in de Havilland machines. The great new trans-Iranian railway, which, when it is completed in 1939, will have cost no less than £30,000,000, is now in the hands of a Scandinavian combine, which is leasing it out to a number of firms of different nationalities. German firms have secured two of the most important .sections. FEAR OB 1 RUSSIA

The most obvious link between the two countries is a common fear of Russia and her propaganda. Communism, which had established a Soviet Republic in the two northern provinces of Iran in 1921, has been stamped out ruthlessly by the Iranian dictator as by the German. But Russia, in spite of the resumption of normal relations which took place after the Trade Agreement of 1933, seems still to be regarded as somewhat of a bogy. It is natural enough that intelligent Iranians, remembering the notorious Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907. and the subsequent violation of their national rights, should be apprehensive of the two great empires which border their territory. One object of-the new trans-Iranian railway is to check the predominance, economic if not political, which Russia has hitherto enjoyed in (he Caspian provinces. As soon as the railway makes transport costs feasible, Russian goods, especially petrol, will be displaced by native products from the rest, of the country, cut off as it is by a 15,000 ft mountain range. This process of reversing I lie adverse trade balance with Russia has already begun, and Germany has been among the competitors to benefit.

Yet on tile .whole it is British traders who have gained the most, which is perhaps one of the reasons why Dr. Schacht visited Teheran. In Ihe last few years Britain has taken Russia’s place as the largest importer into list of exports. But Germany also has Iran, at the same time heading the increased her trade very rapidly in recent years. In 1933-34 she succeeded in occupying the third place after Britain and Russia in the list of importing countries, and in the same year the value of Iranian goods exported to Germany increased by 29,000 reals, so that, she now takes more fi-oni Iran than Russia, or indeed any country except Britain and France. The same period lias witnessed a phenomenal increase in the activities of the new National Bank, founded in 1928 under German management as a rival to the British-owned Imperial Bank of Persia.

Iran’s relations with such a. good ustonier would naturally he friendly; md considering the tendency of dictators to support cacli other, it is not surprising that there are Germans in so many responsible positions, and that such a large proportion of Iranian students complete their technical training in Germany. It is true that French is still the first foreign language. and that the English continue lo hold that trade supremacy which their fortunate ownership of the oilfields alone provides. Yet there, are 1.200 Germans in Iran, ami as the might of a re-armed Germany inereaaes. so correspondingly will her influence grow among the militarist States of the Middle East, where armed strength is valued more highly than it is—or used to be —in Europe. Iran, which is being westernised at. a break-neck rate, and is also a vital link' between Europe and Asia, otters a rich opportunity for Germany in any new Drang nach Sud-Osten which she may wish to iindertake.