Evening star., 1951-05-03
Iran and Its Oil

Teheran have enacted the bill to appropriate and
nationalize the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil
Company, the big question is whether the new
law will be put into effect in way that will
not only serve the best interests Of Iran but
also be fair to Britain and assure an undimin-
ished flow of petroleum products to the free
nations of Western Europe.
At this stage the project seems to be thing
Of very doubtful wisdom. Wholly apart from the
fact that 1t unilaterally contravenes an inter-
national agreement that was supposed to have
remained in force until the year 1898, its prac-
ticality is questionable for these two reasons,
among others: Q Iran lacks the capital and
skilled manpower for an efficient exploitation
of its great oil resources and (2) its long-overdue
economic and social reforms are dependent on
scale of revenue at least equal to what Britain
has been paying out in the form Of concession
fees and royalties.
There has been lot OF loose and oversim-
plif1ed comment attacking the British for having
failed to show more foresight and generosity In
dealing with this situation. However, although
some of the criticism has been justified the fact
remains that last year, in negotiations with the
Teheran government. they offered to double
Trans share in the earnings of the Anglo-Iranian
Oil Company, which is by far the biggest single
industry in the country. In view of this offer,
there is reason to believe that the Iranians would
have been better serving their own interests if
they had made haste slowly and deferred the
naturalization project at least until they had
a clearer idea of just how they would carry it
out and what special benefits would accrue to
them from it,
But members of the Iranian Parliament
despite cooler heads among them and against
the counsel of government leaders, threw
nI>ou i,o%o Last io+;1
After that early this year, they voted in favor
OF Premier Ali Razmara's opposition to nation
alization Finally reversings themselves COM
pletely, they have now decided to take over the
Anglo-Iranian Company-a decision that almost
certainly would not have been reached at this
time were it not for the brutal assassination of
Mr. Razmara and the eXcitation and terrorism
that have rocked Iran for several weeks past In
short, the truth of the matter seems to be that
the Teheran legislators have been frightened into
over-hasty action by an inflamed public temper
resulting from the agitation of intensely ma
tionalistic elements
Those elements have had representation of
only seven seats (the National 'FRONT.' in the
lower house of Parliament. Yet, with the unso-
licited aid of the Communist Tudeh Party, they
have so expertly played upon the pubic's under
standable desire for full Iranian control of Iran
AoAA OAI VAioo bliCy oIC pICCGy ucTOSS
of the hour-so much so, in fact that their
leader, DR.. Mohammed Mossadegh, has suddenly
become the Premier of the country. He is sin
cere man, an all-out nationalistic patriot and
he is as opposed to granting petroleum conces-
sions to Russia as to Britain Unfortunately,
however, it also appears that he is a rather
vague minded visionary.
In the circumstances, 1t can only be hoped
that Mr.. Mossadegh will bend over backward to
make sure that emotional or idealistic concep-
tions of naturalization are not allowed to OBJ
scure the realities. Iran Is the chief fueler of
the British fleet and the major supplier of oil
to Western Europe Accordingly, both for the
sake OF its own economy and for the sake of the.
free world it must work out with Britain an
agreement insuring that the Anglo-Iranan Com
pany will continue to produce efficiently for its
present customers. Only the Kremlin will profit
otherwise.