Irdc.ir: Iran started 1922 with a pile of financial and administrative issues. The weakness of Qajar Shah, instability of constitutional organizations and the world war had added up to the problems. Reza Khan had become the minister of War after the 1921 coup. The peaceful interactions between Reza Khan and Millspaugh turned into opposition and he didn't stand the presence of the advisors in the country anymore.
The relationship between Reza Khan and Millspaugh, in the name of the army, for the benefit of Pahlavi dynasty
Arthur Millspaugh was one of the members of the board of advisors which had come to Iran to reform the financial structures. Iran was then field of influence for England and Soviet Union, and some politicians believed that relying on other countries, especially the United States was a cure for Iran's dependency on these two countries. The fourth parliament wanted to act as the second parliament did in hiring Morgan Shuster, So they have him complete authority. Although this was achieved only by support of Reza Khan. The legislation of the treasury general law, stopping the bias in tax collection, reformation in mint company and administrative structure of big provinces like Tehran, Azerbayjan and Khorasan were his actions.
Reza Khan developed the army, which had cost a fortune. The money was most spent on buying tanks, planes and weapons, while education had only a 14% share of the budget. The share of the army was about 67%. In spite of the great budget, the payment of the soldiers was constantly delayed. A part of it was spent on establishing Pahlavi Kingdom. Some of the proceedings of Millspaugh were to put the reformations at service of the purposes of the ministry of War. So Reza Khan supported him as long as he provided the demands of the ministry of War. And of course tax collection was possible only under his authority. Eventually, when it was revealed that the reformations were blocking his way through centralism, the oppositions were begun.
The opposition between Reza Shah and Millspaugh, The End for the board of advisors
The conflict between Reza Shah and the board of advisors was intensified as his power and authority increased. He set up a parliament which legislated the budget as he wanted, once again mostly to be spent for military purposes. He also wanted no supervision. Millspaugh insisted on finding answers for his questions about how Reza Khan had sent the budget and what they had done with the money and gold they had looted from the tribes, and this lead to an argument between him and Reza Shah. He murdered the accountant who had informed Millspaugh and Ayatollah Modarres of the confidential information from the army.
Millspaugh believed that the budget must be mostly spent in the field of agriculture, and the tax collection and administrative affairs must be organized once and for all. But Reza Shah believed in centralism and did not stand any limitation, especially financial limitation by an American advisor.
Millspaugh wrote a letter to ministry of foreign affairs: "If mentioning the great budget of the ministry of War is not enough, it's important to recall that some years ago, he was just a Qazaq soldier and guarded the embassy of Britain, and now he has got two big houses in Tehran, several villages in Mazandaran and several cars. An there is proof that he had sent 200.000 dollars to Europe a few years ago. The conflict finally lead to his exile from Iran, after their argument about the costs of invading Khorasan in 1926, and Reza Khan took control of financial affairs.
