The Wilmington morning star., 1946-08-16
MORE ABOUT
.ALSOP
FROM PAGE ONE
to local emergencies. Among the

10 local emergencies. among the
results have been the more mex
cusable events in Palestine.
From any standpoint, it is i'm
possible to defend such episodes as
the mass arrests and the letter of
General Barker. But it is also
important to understand the severi-
ty Of the Soviet pressure which
causes the British to fear the
Arabs and therefore to deal wrong
ly with the Jews.
This Soviet pressure first mani
tested itself in the Iranian crisis
Of last winter. 1t is now known be-
You'd much doubt that the Soviets
then intended the prompt and
forcible Transformation of Iran in
to a Soviet satellite, followed fai--
ly rapidly by an advance on Tur-
key. They we're halted by the
strong hand of Secretar of State
James F. Byrnes, but having been
halted, they merely changed their
tactics and pressed less b%rusquely
to the same objective.
Three lines of attack were adopt
ed. In Iran, support for the Tudeh
party was increased and othe-
means we're used to domesticate
the government of Premier Qavam
es S%altaneh, the docile inhabitant
of the Soviet barnyard. In northern
Iran, in the southwestern Soviet
Republics, minority groups such
as the Kurds, the Armeaians and
the Assyro-Chaldeans were en-
couraged with arms and othe- aid
to start nationalist movements in
tended to spread to the Kurds and
Assyro-Chaldeans il Iraq and the
Armenians and Kurds in Turkey.
And at Beirut in Syria, where dis
posed Arab i~ntellectuals congre-
gate, headquarters were establish
ed fo- an orthodox undergroun
Communist network spreading into
Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt. The
Tudeh party in Iran was hooked
into this network.
The third of these methods soon
proved the most promising by
reason of the Middle Eastern social
and political pattern, which Rus
STA, of course, blames in part or
past British policy. The basic pat.
tern is simple-a decadent feuda.
class supported or the backs of a
impoverished Western industrial.
ism has added two new elements
the workers in such enterprises as
Anglo-Iranian oil, and the dis
possessed, Western-trained intel.
lectuals. Thus the old feudalism
had long ago begun to weaken. The
wartime influx of Allied forces.
spending heavily, relocating labor
disrupting wage rates, increased
the strain tenfold.: And the rise
of Arab nationalism put the finish.
ing touch on the situation.
Small wonder then that the Bel
rut headquarters could soon boast
Of successes. It had hardly begun
its organizing drive before sub
stantial gains were scored in
Egypt. There the w. A. F. D. is
lhe only political party with any
thing resembling a popular base.
King Farouk MORALLY detests the
W. A. F. D. leader, Nahas Pasha.
Thus the party, deprived of the
hope of returning to power by
normal means, was open to rapid
infiltration. When the infiltration
began, King Farouk and his at
tendant pashas took alarm and
called a temporary halt by indis-
crisminate arrests. In Iraq, mean
while, in addition to Kurdish sep
aratism, a political movement
similar to the Ku-d Tudeh party
gained strength in the oil fields
and towns. And in Iran, the Tudeh
strength increased throughout the
south until the Anglo-Iranian strike
was called. The strikers, iaciden-
tally, are now known to have re-
ceived Soviet arms and direct So
Wet encouragement.
Events in Iran emphasize just
as dramatically, although less con-
spiciously, the British dete-mina-
ton which has been seen in Pales-
tine to retain their Middle Eastern
position at all costs. During the
first crisis, the Cabinet sent a mis-
sion to Iran composed of one Con-