Evening star., 1953-03-08
AWeepy Old MonH las the Western Wor|dFHtoCry
By John c. Henry

Mohammed MoSSadegh is q Schol-
arly but frail and weepy old man.
For approximately two years, he
has been the Prime Minister of
Iran.
In that time and in that position,
he has succeeded in leading his
country to the verge Of economic
proStration, has reduced it to a
point of dangerous vulnerability to
internal Communist assault or to
an alternative retreat into the dark
ages of ecclesiastical political rule.
He has come within a quavering
whisper of driving the Shah of Iran
from the throne, and he has mar
rowly escaped death by violence.
Anarchy has been just around the
corner of some of Teheran'S bazaar
lined streets, and the end is not
yet in sight.
Despite all this, DR.. Mossadegh
is still the Prime Minister Of Iran
and there are many foreign observ-
ers of the Iranian scene who believe
he represents the best available bet
from the standpoint of his own
country and of the non-C Communist
world in general.
Resenter ond Resister
DR.. Mossadegh has spent most Of
his political life resenting and re-
sisting foreign influences in Iran.
The historic foes have been Russia
which has been in and out of
Iran on several occasions but,
strangely enough, has never been
able to get firm foothold-and
Great Britain. The British have
been DR.. Mossadegh's principal tar
get during the past two years and
he has won at least Pyrrhic vic
tory. He was the principal author
of the law by which the Iranian
government nationalized the valu-
able oil properties Of the Anglo
Iranian Oil Co., a British govern
ment-controlled operation which
had been the largest single revenue
producer for Iran and one of the
greatest petroleum suppliers in the
non-C Communist world.
It was unfortunate in the earlier
months of the naturalization move
ment that neither the company nor
the British government really be-
lieved it could happen. Their con-
cessions in dealing with DR.. Mos
sadegh were either too little or too
late. They failed dismally in their
public relations, both in Iran and
before the bar of world opinion.
BY the time they became more re-
alistic in their bargaining, DR.. Mos
sadegh had become more cantanker-
GUS and intranSigent. The only WIN
ner, up to now, has been Soviet
Russia which, by no effort of its
own, has benefited by seeing the oil
denied to the West and by watch
ing the great refinery at Abadan-
the worlds largest-steadily deteri-
Grating.
If made permanent, it is victory
of no small proportions for the
Soviet Union. The economy OF
Western Europe, in particular, func-
tions in a virtual bath of Middle
East oil. Without it, there would
be two alternatives - replacement
which would have to come mostly
from the Western Hemisphere, or a
slowing down of the entire indus
trial and defense effort of those
free nations which are so important
in the makeup of the non-Com-
munist world.
Fortunately, Middle East oil does
not come from Iran alone, and the
stoppage of production there has
been more than offset by stepping
up the pace in the great oil fields
of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq.
In the opinion of oil and trans
portation experts, incidentally, even
a Russian occupation of Iran could
not make Iranian Oil easily avail
able to use by the Soviet Union