Bread, Agents & Bullets

Last week there were riots in Teheran, Persia. Ostensibly they occurred because of a bread shortage; actually bread was an incidental question. The riots were the work of Axis agents, attempting to disrupt the key city on the Allied lifeline between the Persian Gulf and Russia. The outburst died under the guns of soldiers and police.

The violence started with a students' demonstration for educational reforms in Majlis (Parliament) Square. Provocateurs mingled with the demonstrators, gave them new slogans about bread. The students broke into the Parliament building, smashed furniture before the police evicted them. Then what had been a crowd of demonstrators slowly turned into a mob.

In every part of Teheran Axis agents egged on the people, sending them down to Parliament to agitate for bread. Orators harangued the crowd, worked it up with cries to oust the government. By evening the mob was marching down the main thoroughfare, Stamboul Street, ready for physical violence.

The Riot Starts. A crowd of hooligans swarmed over Stamboul Street. A provocateur jumped on a traffic light, brandishing a club. He shouted, and out of the crowd came 30 men similarly armed. In an Armenian toy shop glass splintered. Bricks and clubs flew through the air, smashed other windows. Out of a radio store phonograph records came sailing high into the night. Jewelry stores, rug stores, department stores were quickly bled of all the goods that could be carried. Looters tore down the street in both directions as they got what they wanted.

From a loudspeaker in Pahlavi Square came the strains of a conga. Then the mob heard grimmer music as the firing started. Soldiers opened up with rifles and pistols; tanks lumbered into position and began firing. The Army was called out, stood by with loaded guns.

Under the bullets the street cleared quickly. The guns rat-tat-tatted down the streets as soldiers followed up the fleeing looters. All that night the looting and the shooting kept up in various parts of town. Soldiers and police roamed the streets in trucks armed with Bren guns, mopped up groups of rioters and looters until morning.

By noon the next day the military governor had been replaced and the town was quiet once more. At dusk a convoy of British troops entered Teheran, marched through the deserted streets with bayonets fixed and machine guns swinging. Teheran was under control.

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