[PROVISIONAL TRANSLATION FROM PERSIAN]

 

[Translator’s notes appear in square brackets]

[Personal information has been redacted.]

 

[Emblem]

Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone

Ministerial Office

Dated: 3/2/1320 [23 April 1941]

Number: 55

Copy of a letter

 

Shiraz – Post, Telegraph and Telephone of the Seventh Province – Fars

 

You are respectfully informed: These Baha’is, although previously, last year, in the presence of Mr. Ashraf, head of the district of the Seventh Province in Shiraz, they had made the commitment never to hold private meetings and gatherings, which are strictly prohibited by the government, on Monday 1/2/1320 [21 April 1941], held an official assembly at Oliya Bied, the famous Ghasemi garden, which belongs to Mir Karim.  The Muslims reported that to the cultural representative of Sarvestan, and [Mr. Ashraf] met privately with the Sarvestan police deputy commander, and in order to quiet down the residents, requested that [the gathering] be dissolved. 

The acting commander of law enforcement took immediate action to suspend their meetings and reported to his army company. The rumor is that they held the continuation of their meeting on the same afternoon at Hasan Rouhani’s garden.  Of course, they will hold a religious meeting on 4/2/1320 [24 April 1941] for the Rezvan festival^[1].  It is shown that, out of the Sarvestan population, 4,500 permanent residents in Sarvestan proper, and 1,500 within a half-kilometre radius of Sarvestan, a total of 6,000, a maximum of 170 are Baha’is, who are administered under the influence of nine people who cause disorder and disturbance in public opinion—so much so that on 1/2/1320 [21 April 1941], a gathering held by the Baha’is almost caused a major unrest.

 

Sarvestan Post, Ali Ale-Attar

 

This is true copy of the original. [Stamp: illegible]

 

 

[1] [A Bahá’í celebration occasion]