Evening star., 1941-08-23
Iran on the Spot

The hard lot of small neutrals IN
the present war is strikingly exem-
plified by the current crisis over
Iran. That country, having become
strategically and economically de-
sirable to both sets of belligerentS, Is
threatened by diplomatic and mill
tary presSureS which Immediately
endanger its neutrality.
Iran, formerly known as Persia, Is
a big, backward Oriental land, mostly
mountain and desert, thinly in
habited by some 100000 people,
| largely nomadic tribesmen. Under
the rule of the decadent KhadJar
dynasty it's chronic weakness reduced
it to an impotent buffer state be-
tween the British and Russian en-
pires. It's nominal independence was
due chiefly to the fact that neither
empire could see the other control a
country which, in British hands,
would have menaced Russia'S hold
on the Caucasus and Central Asia,
and which, in Russian hands, would
have given them the key to India.
For nearly half a century patri-
otic minority of Persians have
dreamed of regenerating their coun-
try. In the decade before the Great
War, two such attempts, one under
the advisorShip of an American, w.
Morgan Shuster, were thwarted by
Russian and British diplomacy. Dur
ing the Great War, Persia's neutral
ity was violated by all her neighbors.
Thereafter, Britain obtained short
lived ascendancy, soon abrogated by
Persian discomfort abetted by the
rising strength of Soviet Russia,
though Britain retained control OF
the rich oil fields of Southwestern
Persia, which constitute its chief
natural wealth.
The movement for national revival
came to a head in the year 1925, when
a revolution unseated the Khadjar
dynasty and installed in its place the
vigorous leader of the revolt. This
man, a professional soldier of hum
BILE origin, named Reza Khan Pahlevi,
undertook the modernization of his
country on the model of Mustapha
Kemal in neighboring Turkey. In
his sixteen years of rule, he has done
much to transform the country
along Western lines, with a stable
government, small, yet well-disci-
plined army, a spreading network OF
highways, and the beginnings OF in
| naturalization in the shape OF cotton
and wooden mills The new era is
typified by the change of name from
Persia to the more ancient title OF
Iran.
This modernizing process has been
aided by Western experts and tech
nicians, some of them Americans but
mostly Europeans of various nation
alities. Reza Shah looked aSkance
at employing Englishmen or Rus
slams, regarded in Iran as traditional
menaces. This explains in part the
number of Germans in Iranian serv-
ice. Unquestionably those German
technicians have aided their trouble
making compatriots, the professional
tourists" who, according to the
British, have been intriguing in Iran.
Germany undoubtedly is trying to
make Iran a pawn in it's Middle East
ern schemes. Yet there Is no evi-
dence that Reza Shah wants to do
more than maintain his country S
neutrality and independence. The
progress of German influence In
Iran is due primarily to the fact that
Reza Shah and his compatriots fear
Russia and Britain more Immediately
than they do Germany, which Is as
yet far away.
Those fears are intensified today
by the obvious fact that Iran has
become the most practicable route
for British aid to Russia, especially
in the Caucasus, where the oil fields
of Baku are coveted prize for the
Germans. Should the Germans
sweep through the Ukraine, British
armies as we'll as supplies probably
would be needed to hold the Caucasus
front. That, however, would spell
the end of Trans neutrality, and
might bring on an Anglo-Russian
military occupation to insure this
vital line of communication. This
is the stern prospect which Reza
Shah now faces.