May 26th, 1941
Tehran, 17:00 - For four days, the imperial court had been absent, so to speak. But in a letter delivered personally to Sir Reader Bullard by a messenger from the Court, the
messenger, the great chamberlain, in accordance with custom, "presents his compliments and distinguished greetings to His Excellency the Minister, Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of His Majesty King George VI", and tells him that he will be received by the Shahinchah at 19:30. Fascinated as he is of protocol, Sir Reader does not fail to note that it is, to say the least, discourteous not to give a foreign sovereign his full title and to omit to mention, in this case, that George VI is also Emperor of India. The meaning to give to this omission seems obvious to him and he charges one of his subordinates to inform London without delay.
19:15 - Sir Reader Bullard, accompanied by his number two, Edward Fitzroy esq. CMG MC, and by his military attaché, Lieutenant Colonel Lord David Gifford DSO MC, of the Royal Dragoons* , arrives at the Shah's palace in the usual black Daimler. In view of the content of the directives received from the Foreign Office, Bullard chooses to present himself in a morning coat, which Fitzroy also wears, while Gifford wears a dolman and scarlet pants, with his decorative bars offset by silver spurs.
19:30 - The Grand Chamberlain introduces the British into the audience hall of the palace.
The Shah, according to his habit, puts on his Cossack colonel's uniform and wears his black astrakhan talpak. He wears "all the cookware" (will write Sir Reader Bullard wrote with infinite contempt), including the collar of the Order of Pahlavi and the the Order of the Crown.
Reza Pahlavi is surrounded by all his ministers, the main dignitaries of the empire and several of his generals, starting with General Gholamali Bayandor who commands the 1st Iranian Army**. "His Highness," Sir Reader Bullard notes in a report the same evening, "seemed to me to exhale a charged breath, and the brightness of her pupils that she had indulged, as is said to be her custom, in substances prohibited by our laws."
19:32 - The interpreter, whose cheeks are flushed but whose forehead and nose are pale, translates the Shah's first sentences. "We did not want to offend you personally by refusing to grant you, Mr. ambassador, and your collaborators, the audience you requested. Know that we had no desire to see you, however, and that we are convinced that we have nothing to say, either to you or to your government."
A perfect diplomat, Sir Reader Bullard remains unmoved by the outrage: "I shall therefore value all the more the opportunity to speak to Your Highness, to whom I have the happy duty of conveying the sentiments of friendship of my king."
Reza Shah, polite when he absolutely must, cannot do less than nod: "I thank you, and beg you to be my intermediary to entrust him with mine."
Sir Reader Bullard decides not to waste time - and, motu proprio, to involve France, which cannot but, in his demonstration: "By order of His Majesty's Government, I am compelled to represent to Your Highness that the Allied Powers are weary of what they are, to their greatest regret, forced to call sympathies towards their Axis enemies. As a result, the United Kingdom, speaking in the name of the Allied Powers, requests Your Highness to direct her government to proceed without delay to the arrest of all German and Italian nationals present in Iran and to hand them over to such representatives as the Court of Saint-James wishes to know, for the purpose of internment."
The Shahinchah turns pale, but the glow in his eyes turns incandescent. Yet he is content to ruffle his moustache with the tip of his index finger. The interpreter is sweating, and drops of sweat from the roots of his hair disturb his vision. London's representative continues, unperturbed: "In addition, nine oil tankers and cargo ships flying the flag of Germany and Italy have been sheltering in Bandar Abbas for months. The indulgence...perhaps it would be more truthful to call it complicity... the constant indulgence, I said,
of your highness' government towards the breaches of the rules of neutrality of which the crews of these ships are guilty every day can no longer be tolerated. So that..."
Bullard pauses theatrically.
"Well?" throws in Shah, who clenches his jaws.
A hint of a smile may appear on Sir Reader's face: "So the government is waiting for Your Highness's government to decide to sequester these ships, as well as to order the arrest of their officers and to hand them over to His Majesty like all other Axis nationals."
If the Shah had intended to say a few words, Sir Reader Bullard does not allow him the time to do so and finishes his speech: "It goes without saying that His Majesty's Government, on behalf of the Allied Powers, must be astonished that Your Highness remains in diplomatic relations with Germany and with Italy. It would seem to him expedient, and, to say the least, natural, that these be put an end to these relations as soon as possible. In short, I have to point out to Your Highness today that the measures which His Majesty's Government expects from Your Highness' Government must be taken within a week. Failing this, His Majesty's Government will judge itself, with its allies, to be in a position, as much as in the right, to conform its policy to the necessities of the situation."
The word ultimatum does not appear in Sir Reader's statement, but it is just the same. The Shah seems choked with anger. Then, the envoy from London bows: "It only remains for me and my collaborators to take leave of Your Highness, to whom we send our best wishes for prosperity and health."
Still mute, Reza Pahlavi gestures with his right hand - his left hand clutches the hilt of his saber - which undoubtedly means: "Get out!" Everyone in his empire knows
that he has never quite ceased to be the bribe-taker he once was.
The three Brits leave the hall backwards, stopping three times for the de rigueur bows.
"Nice weather for a polo game," says Sir Reader, climbing back into his Daimler. "Quite, Sir," agrees Gifford. Fitzroy merely nods.
.........
London, 20:30 - The USSR ambassador, Ivan Maisky, has been invited to dinner by Anthony Eden at the Foreign Office. He is accompanied - or watched? - by his number three, Piotr Petrovitch Bretchko, whom MI5 suspects of being the head of Beria's representation at the embassy. The conversation, as it should be, is about "questions of common interest".
After the hors d'oeuvres, we come to the situation in the Caucasus where, Maisky asserts, the Turks have been strengthening their military presence for three months. Eden, who, in truth, does not believe it, exchanges a glance with Sir Alexander Cadogan: "His Majesty's government has not been informed of this," he says, with a look of regret. "But, between us I can't see what benefit President Inönü would find in irritating the Soviet authorities. It is in his interest to maintain good relations between Moscow and Ankara. Unless, still between us, they do not consider it useless, in the Kremlin, to increase a little the tension between Turkey and the Soviet Union, and..."
"Hypothesis without foundation!" cuts Maisky.
"Very well, very well!" resumes Eden with a tiny shade of irony. "But, about the Caucasus precisely, Mr. ambassador, I must confide you that we were led to... well... to exert... sustained pressure on His Highness the Shah of Iran. I am afraid we are forced to consider a certain obstinacy on the part of His Highness, who seems to us to be susceptible, as always, to some stubbornness, I confess to you... that the Shahinchah refuses to follow up our requests, which are, however, it goes without saying, perfectly reasonable."
"It goes without saying," Maisky pretends to agree, in the tone Eden had used to say "Very well."
If this were, alas, the case," continues Eden, "His Majesty's Government might... I repeat, might... be forced to resort to some form of coercion."
Maisky nods: "A form of coercion... I see.
"I will be completely frank and candid, Mr. Ambassador. The Allies in general, and the United Kingdom in particular, are wondering about the probability of events... at this stage, these are only possibilities...that would lead the Shah of Iran to relinquish his throne in favor of his heir. These events, I fear, would include the presence of British troops... I meant allied troops, of course... on part of Iran's territory in order to ensure the protection of their interests, especially in the field of oil."
"I see..." repeats Maisky without committing himself further.
"We would like the Soviet Union not to read into this an unfriendly gesture against it. On the contrary! We are anxious to act only in consultation with the authorities in Moscow, because we are aware that the USSR also has interests in Iran and that it could have the will to protect them, which we would not believe to be illegitimate!"
An excellent diplomat, whatever his detractors may say, Ivan Maisky understands quickly and also knows not to lose himself in procrastination. He only says: "I will pass it on."
* In the British system, the title of Lord (with a lower case) followed by a first and last name indicates a younger son of a peer of the realm (duke, earl, viscount or baron), who by definition will not inherit the title. Winston Churchill's father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was the third son of the Duke of Marlborough, head of the Churchill family and, although the grandson of a duke, Winston Churchill was, for most of his life, only Mr. Churchill MP - a commoner, albeit a member of the gentry. In return, like the baronets or knights, cadets are eligible for election to the Commons, unlike their elders, confined to the House of Lords and denied the right to vote.
The Royal Dragoons (The Royals), which accept as officers only the finest of the aristocracy, are one of the regiments of the Household Cavalry.
** In fact, it was little more than an army corps whose divisions, moreover, only fielded a variable percentage of their personnel and have only a part of their equipment at their disposal: troops better adapted a priori for maintaining order, for example in the Kurdish zone, than for war.
