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another, though much less desirable form of indirect taxation; everyone is paid so inadequately that they simply augment their official income as best they can fromday to day – a situation accepted by all with much the same brand of resentful resignation as we show towards tax-paying. House-owners pay the local police a regular monthly sum to ensure that their homes and cars will be properly guarded – and if some newcomer refuses to pay on principle his home will be the inevitable target for the next burglary. I’ve asked several responsible Persians why an orthodox tax isn’t imposed and their answer was that you can’t do that sort of thing with a mainly illiterate population and that the people who can afford property which needs protection can also afford to subsidise the police. But of course this is only one example and bribery is the determining factor in every sphere of activity from the university professor’s correction of exam papers down to the dustman’s collection of garbage. I must admit that it’s difficult to get adjusted to such a fetid atmosphere, in which one is always conscious of the power of money over integrity.
TEHERAN, 30 MARCH
    Today I’ve been receiving Good Advice in bulk from various Responsible Persons. H.I.M. the Shah was to have gone to Meshed this morning but the papers announced that his trip has been cancelled because of ‘bad weather’; as the weather at the moment is perfection (74°F. and cloudless sky) everyone thinks the government a bit dim for not inventing a better excuse. The fact is that the Mullahs are now stirring up serious trouble there about Land Redistribution and Women’s Emancipation and as they still have a very strong grip in that area, and are capable of working certain sections of the people into an anti-Shah frenzy, it was judged wiser for H.I.M. to avoid the Holy City just now. (Since I left Tabriz, two women have been killed there in Mullah-provoked anti-Women’s Emancipation riots.) As Meshed is the next – and last – Persian city on my route I am being warned repeatedly that I must do my best to look like a man in that area. Also I’m to be very careful about using my camera between here and there as, if I were accidentally to include even a distant mosque in a picture and the crowd happened to be in the mood, I could be stoned and possibly seriously injured, as recently happened to two over-keen French photographers.
    I’ve also been advised that hotel bedrooms without locks call for empty bottles balanced on top of the door to ensure that one is not taken altogether by surprise should wandering lechers have designs on one’s virtue. (As creating empty bottles is one of the few things I’m good at, this is an appropriate suggestion.) However, I intend staying as often as possible in gendarmerie barracks between here and Afghanistan, as the Persian gendarmerie is a force existing primarily to protect travellers and is reputedly more dependable than other branches of the national police – how much more dependable remains to be seen.
    Tonight I enjoyed a farewell hooley with my Pakistani friends – though hooley is hardly the mot juste as they drink only water. I suppose, if one will mix with good Muslims, it’s only to be expected that they’ll open for themselves another bottle of Pure Water (guaranteed) every time they refill your glass. And certainly Colonel Zeb needs no alcohol to stimulate his brain or improve his masterly skill in the use of the English language: quite apart from the considerable interest of what he has to say on an incredibly wide variety of topics, it’s a joy to merely hear him saying it. I haven’t enjoyed such a good evening’s discussion for a long time: the five of us started talking at 6 p.m. and got so involved on so many fascinating points that no one wanted to break it up and we didn’t have dinner till 10.40 p.m.! It’s now 2.10 a.m. so, as I’m planning an early start, some sleep might not be a bad