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9.

We fully appreciate the Foreign Office view that the

price of Iranian assistance would probably be heavy, both at

the time of the request and also after the war. We fear that,a

whatever the Shah asked for the future, he might at the time

demand the assistance of a British force for the defense of

northern Iran. Whether or not such a force could be found

would depend on the general strategical situation and the

forces available.

justify us in mortgaging force to help the Shah by embarking

on co-ordinated war plans, as suggested by the Irani an

Minister.

The future is still too uncertain to

In any case we are averse to employing British forces

alongside so unreliable an ally as the Iranian, if it can be

avoided. For this reason we would prefer to operate against

Russia with long-range aircraft based on Mosul, although we

realise that this may involve delay in attacking the Baku

oilfields and a consequent strengthening of the Russian air

defences.

10.

To sum up:

(a) There is no prospect of our being able to supply Iran in 1940 with the additional aircraft suggested by the Iranian Minister.

(b) From the purely defensive aspect we do not need

to co-ordinate plans with the Iranian Government.

(c) It would be an advantage if we could use Teheran

as an advanced air base for attack on the Caucasian oilfields. We do not, however, wish to pay too high a price for Iranian good-will and would prefer to confine our assistance to Iran to air forces.

This

(d) We shall be able to operate against Baku from air

bases in Iraq when our forces in the Middle East are re-equipped with long-range, aircraft. course would be preferable to (c) above, but the re-equipment is unlikely to be completed before the late summer.

(e) It would always be possible to divert long-range

aircraft from the Metropolitan Air Force for operations against Baku. Such diversion would necessarily depend on the situation in Europe and would, in any event, take time.

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