Moments Of History: Leopold Amery Visit To Iran

Leopold Amery was Minister of Colonial Affairs from 1924 to 1929. During his visit to Iran, he visited the facilities of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. A report on the visit was published in the journal Naft Magazine and is excerpted below where he talks about his impressions of his visit to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in Persia:

The main Impression which I formed during my brief visit to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company’s plant at Mohammerah, Dorquain and Abadan was of the vastness of the undertaking and of the efficiency with which it is being carried out…

A feature of the Company’s activities which I noted with interest and pleasure is to be found in the welfare side of its work—both in the up-to-date and efficient hospital on the Company’s premises where all the employees in need of medical or surgical treatment are tended by able doctors and a kindly nursing staff, and in the carefully planned houses which have been, and are still being, erected for the growing staff, both European and local.

Incidentally nothing could have exceeded the attention which the hospitable spirit of Mr. Jacks and all of his colleagues devoted to the “welfare” of their visitors, so as to make sure that the visit to the APOC should remain a red-letter day in their recollection.

(Naft Magazine (APOC), July 1925)

Here is a report of Naft Magazine on Reza Khan’s visit to Khuzestan in 1925, (Visit to Khuzistan of H.H. The Sirdar Sipah):

On Thursday morning, the principal members of the party travelled back to Dar-i-Khazineh by railway, the remainder being conveyed by car. To some of the guests a railway journey was a unique experience, and the Sirdar Sipah’s interest was far from being that of a mere sightseer… On arrival at Dar-i-Khazineh, luncheon was taken at the Rest House, and after a brief rest the whole party proceeded across the river. With the exchange of cordial farewells, the Sirdar Sipah and his staff then left by cars for Ahvaz, accompanied only by Mr. Greenhouse.

His Highness remained in Ahvaz until the following Tuesday, when, together with his suite, he left for Mohammerah on the Company’s river steamer Dehluran, escorted by some of the Shaikhs of Mohammerah’s river craft of all kinds, packed with children from Mohammerah, after the usual Persian custom. The streamer did not tie up at Mohammerah, but entered the Shatt-el-Arab and proceeded it up to the Shaikh’s Palace at Faliyeh.

The next day, His Highness with the whole of his suite embarked on the Shaikh of Mohammerah’s streamer Khazalieh, and proceeded down-stream to Abadan, where they arrived about 10 a.m. the party landed at No. 3 Jetty, which had been suitably decorated for the occasion…

The whole party then proceeded on board the Shaikh of Mohammerah’s steamer Khazalieh, and shortly afterwards His Highness left for Basra and Iraq, on a pilgrimage to the Shi’ah Holy Cities of Kerbela and Nejef before returning to Tehran.

(Naft Magazine (APOC), April 1925)