The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-03-25
| ran

Continued from Page H.
that Iran had acceded TO Soviet
demands for oil and political con-
cessions before the Russian evacua-
ton began. The British govern
ment had received no reply of any
| sort to its repeated queries and
protests to Moscow over Russia s
failure to honor the March 2 with
drawal date.
The diplomatic correspondent OF
the Daily Herald, Labor Party news
paper, said it seemed probable that
Iran had agreed to Soviet demands
for autonomy Of the Azerbaijan pro-
vincial government, Soviet exploit
tation OF all northern Iran oilfields
and a pledge of future Iranian
loyalty" to the Soviet Union.
UNO May Accept Pact
The Daily Herald predicted that
the UNO Security Council meeting
in New York would be asked to ac-
cept -uch settlement and consider
the dispute closed It appeared
that an explanation of the agree
ment could come from the UNO
meeting.
Diplomatic sources raised three
chief questions about the uneXpect-
ed Soviet announcement, broadcast
Sunday afternoon, that under an
agreement with Iran Red army
troops had begun evacuating Iran
and would be out of the country
within six weeks, barring unforeseen
developments.
The questions were: When was
the agreement made, what if any
concessions did Iran make to obtain
the Soviet withdrawal and how
much of loophole was Russia leav-
ing herself?
Only few hours before the Mos
COW broadcast announcing the with
drawal agreement, Premier Ahmed
Ghavam of Iran told correspond
entS in Tehran that no new nego-
tiations had begun and said the
initiative for further Soviet-1ranian
negotiations must come from Mos
COW.
Optimism Has Basis
He took the optimistic, if indefin-
lite, line, however, that a Soviet
Iranian settlement would be reached
before the UNO meeting. Since he
spoke barely "a hours before the
meeting was scheduled, it appeared
that he had some grounds for OPP
timism which he did not disclose to
the correspondents.
A few minutes after announcing
the troop withdrawal, Moscow radio
announced that Andrei A. Gromyko,
Soviet ambassador to Washington,
would be the Soviet representative
at the UNO session.
The timing and manner of the
announcements indicated that the
Soviet government had decided up
on a definite course of action in
handling its case before the Secur-
ity Council.
The British government received |
the withdrawal announcement with |
reserve. Official quarters wanted to
see proof of the evacuation, and
still emphasized their belief that
Russia had violated the terms of the
Anglo-Soviet-Iranian Treaty of 1912,
Under its terms, Russian troops
should have been out of Iran by
March 2.
Question Unanswered
Another question raised in Lon
don diplomatic quarters was-why
did Russia announce that the with
irawal resulted from an agreement
With Iran, when it was already
overdue under the tri-power treaty?
An NBC correspondent broadcast
ng from Moscow said Iran was eX-
oected to recognize the independ-
ence of Azerbaijan within the
of the Iranian state. The
northern province of Iran recently
declared itself autonomous. Any
rehran recognition of its autonomy
evidently would be linked with ne
rotations over the withdrawal of Il
Russian forces from Iran.
A British Foreign Office Spokes-
nan said it would be quite prema-
ure to say our anXieties have been
elieved with regard to the pressure
which might alrady have been or
till might be put on the Iranian
by Russia.
I'VE do not yet know the terms
u the agreement reported between