PERSIAN SCENE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26034, 24 December 1945, Page 7

PERSIAN SCENE

DISAFFECTION INCREASING RUSSIAN INFLUENCE PERSISTS (Rec. 10.20 p.m.) TEHERAN, Dec. 23. s The Azerbaijan insurgents have taken over Ardabil, which surrendered. The fall of Reziaeh is expected shortly. Thirty-four more officers from the Tabriz garrison have arrived at Teheran. They were not molested en route. Colonel Darachshani is confined in the Teheran Officers’ Club, where he is writing a report on the surrender of Tabriz. Reuter’s correspondent says that Mr Harold Minor, chief of the Near Eastern division of the United States State Department, who arrived a fortnight ago to study the situation in Azerbaijan, is still 1 waiting for permission from the Russian authorities to travel to the area. Six British and American newspaper correspondents are similarly held up. The Associated Press correspondent says the Government Intelligence Service has reported the presence of armed civilians and an unusual concentration of Russian tanks and troops in the Mazanderan province. Other reports indicate anti-Government activity in the province of Khurassan.