IOR/L/PS/12/3527

Correspondence and other papers concerning the financial crisis in Persia [Iran] during the Second World War, and the efforts made by the Governments of Britain and the United States of America to ameliorate the crisis, partly to help maintain military operations in the South-East Asian theatre of the War. The correspondence covers: the Persian currency crisis of 1942, and an agreement between the Governments of Britain and Persia, making provisions for the control of exchange rates between Persia and Britain (f 155); the appointment of Arthur Chester Millspaugh as Director-General of Finance to the Persian Government, in an effort to resolve the country’s financial crisis; Millspaugh’s assessment of the Persian economy, and his recommendations for its stabilisation (ff 71-75); correspondence between Millspaugh and the Financial Counsellor at the British Legation at Tehran, William Angus Boyd Iliff.

The file’s principal correspondents are: HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Tehran, Reader William Bullard; the Foreign Office; and HM Ambassador to the United States of America, the Earl of Halifax, Edward Frederick Lindley Wood.

The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.