200 A Short History of the Middle East
met with the insolent reply that Persia was anxious to get rid of
alfforeigners.1 The response to this was the joint Anglo-Russian
invasion of Persia in August. The greater part of the Persian army
was kept back by Riza Shah to overawe the unruly tribes who
hated his tyrannical rule, and what was available was no match for
the invading forces. Before September was out the avaricious old
Shah had been forced to abdicate in favour of his young son.
Russian and British troops occupied the Northern and Southern
parts of Persia respectively, and the Trans-Iranian Railway and
road-systems were extensively used for the supply of American
and British munitions and supplies to Russia. The political situa-
tion was regulated by the Anglo-Soviet-Persian Treaty of 1942,
whereby Persia gave the Allies full wartime facilities, and they
undertook in return to withdraw their troops within six months of
the end of hostilities. Nevertheless the sympathies of most poli-
tically-minded Persians remained with the Axis, and some officials
continued during 1942 to intrigue with the German agent Franz
Mayr, who had escaped when the Germans in Persia were rounded
up for internment.
The Middle East political barometer continued to fluctuate with
the changing strategic situation. By January 1942 the disasters of
Pearl Harbour and Singapore, and the second British retreat in
Cyrenaica before Rommel's forces, gave new encouragement to
her enemies. In Egypt the government of Husain Sirri had since
1940 co-operated loyally; but having no majority backing in par-
liament its life was precarious and its policy correspondingly ir-
resolute. Faced in the autumn of 1941 with a growing tide of pro-
Axis and anti-British propaganda, in which the powerful and ex-
tremist Ikhwan al-Muslinoin or Muslim Brotherhood organization
played a prominent part, it acceded to British representations by
arresting its leader Hasan al-Banna, only to release him a few days
later, apparently under pressure from the Palace, which was
believed to have been generously subsidizing him. A month later
the breaking-off of diplomatic relations with Vichy France at
Britain's request caused the resignation of the Foreign Minister,
again apparently the victim of royal displeasure. In January 1942
the failure of the Egyptian authorities to break the black market
and ensure a proper distribution of bread in Cairo coincided with
the military disasters referred to above, and promoted a wave of
1 Elwell-Sutton, op. cit., 186.