Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-03-01
By Allen Drury

The story Of the worlds new
est crisis is a tale of western
avarice added to native hysteria
and transformed into war
threatening chaos by the stub
born arrogance of one man
Premier Mohammed Mossadegh.
From it's earliest origins it has
shown a characteristic pattern:
British economic Imperialism.
Russian geographic Imperialism,
and Iranian efforts, sometimes
successful but more often inef-
fective. to play them of against
each other.
The story begins in 1872, when
Baron Julius de Reuter-, a British
subject who founded Reuters
News Agency, obtained a conces-
sion from the Iranian govern
ment to exploit all natural re-
sources except gold. silver and
precious stones. The Russians
protested. the Iranians cancelled
the concession, the British pro-
tested and the Iranians REIN
stated the concession with even
greater privileges. Thus, early,
the pattern Of conflict was es-
tablished.
Oil Found in sos.
Thereafter, things in Iran were
quiet for a quarter of a century.
Reuter- lacked adequate scientific
equipment; his concession died a
natural death. No further ex-
plorations were undertaken until
the late COS, when q French
geologist reported oil traces in
Western Iran.
In 1901, an Australian, William
Knox Darcy, wangled a Cougar
concession from Iran. This time
more consideration was shown
for Russian feelings: Darcy did
not seek concession on the five
northernmost provinces, con-
coded to be within the Russian
sphere.
BY 1908 the first guSher in the
Darcy concession was in produc-
ton and with it came formation
of the Anglo Persian Oil Co.
Five years later the British gov
eminent at the urging of Win
ston Churchill. then First Lord
Of the Admiralty, converted the
Royal Navy from coal to oil and
bought a controlling interest in
Anglo-Persian for $40 million.
Russians Yield Claims.
In 1921, as if to prove their
nobility to the 'Iranians, Rus
sla's new Communist leaders
signed a treaty yielding their
claims to Iranian oil-and giving
the Soviet Union the right to in
tervene in Iran any time it de-
cides a third power is trying to
use the country as a base for
aggression against Russia.
There followed a period of
quiet. Russia developed her own
vast fields at Baku, north of
Azerbaijan, Trans northernmost
province. Anglo-Persian, now
known as Anglo Iranian in line
with the official change in the
country's name, developed the
British concessions and the huge
refinery at Abadan on the Per-
sian Gulf. In 1888, after a brief
tiff in which the late Shah Rheza
Pahlevi first cancelled the Brit
ish concession and then rein
stated it on a basis giving him
higher royalties. Anglo-Iranian
signed a new agreement which,
the British thotght-ran until
1898. a~. -
In 1910 the uneasy but until
then relatively peaceful power
balance in the Middle East
shifted sharply. World War II
was under way. and the Nazis
were seemingly into everything,
including Iran. The British an
nounced they must intervene,
and did so; as soon as Germany
attacked her, Russia did likewise;
and when the United States en-
tered the war, Iran became one
big transmission-belt carrying
supplies from the Gulf to the So
Wet Union. Troops of all three
nations were in occupation;
after the war they were supposed
to get out. The United States
and Britain did so. but it was not