Blowup?

The Iranian fuse was sputtering nearer & nearer to the powder keg.

Early last week, Anglo-Iranian's negotiators had walked into the Teheran meeting room with a highly reasonable offer: the British would accept, almost without qualification, the principle of nationalizing Anglo-Iranian. They suggested this method of procedure: Britain would give up all its Iranian assets (worth about $1 billion) to an Iranian-owned Persian National Oil Co. In turn, the new company would contract with an operating concern to manage production. The operating concern would be directed by a joint British-Iranian board. Final item: Britain would pay Iran $28 million immediately, pay an additional $8,400,000 monthly until the new agreement was concluded.

Within minutes after the British made the offer, the Iranian delegation left the meeting room, phoned frail, ailing Premier Mohammed Mossadeq. Thirty minutes later, Britain's chief negotiator, Basil Jackson, looking pale and strained, walked out of the conference room and said to waiting newsmen: "Well, talks are broken off, gentlemen. They refused to accept our suggestions under any circumstances."

Twenty-eight hours later, Britain's saddened negotiating team boarded a chartered plane and took off for London. Straight from a Scotch & soda going-away party for the negotiators, British Ambassador Sir Francis Shepherd and Minister George Middleton with their wives--all in evening dress--were on hand to wave goodbye.

Mossadeq's Victory. U.S. Ambassador Henry Grady, who had tried his somewhat naive best to mediate, retired in wounded pride to await another chance. No one believed it would come. Bands of Mossadeq's burliest. National Frontists charged into Anglo-Iranian's Teheran offices, ripped down the company signs, shouted: "We nationalize or we die."

After the carefully organized spree, Mossadeq summoned the Majlis to endorse his policy of all-out nationalization --no strings. Mossadeq uttered a threat: unless a quorum assembled and voted him confidence, he would not be responsible for order. One by one the intimidated parliamentarians filed past the Speaker's desk to drop cards into one of two copper pots. All the 91 cards dropped were white, meaning yes; no one dropped a blue card meaning no. One brave member abstained.

Mossadeq, an honest man at the head of a largely incompetent and corrupt government, obviously could not run the oilfields, wanted British technicians to stay on and do the job for him. Having expropriated the British, the Iranians now childishly blamed the British for not assisting at their own expropriation. Said professorial little Allahyar Saleh, chairman of the parliamentary Nationalization Board: "We hope the foreign employees will not leave their jobs. If they do so, Iran will disclaim responsibility for the disruption of the flow of oil to the West."

Cracked one U.S. newsman: "I now have my lead: 'Persia expects every Englishman to do his duty.' "

The West's Impotence. The West faced a real dilemma. If it did not polish the shoe that had just kicked it, the West might lose one of its major oil sources and Iran might turn to the Russians. The U.S. State Department counseled London that it had better try to stay on the scene and produce as much oil as possible.

In London, when Foreign Secretary Herbert Morrison reported the week's events to the House of Commons, the massive head of Winston Churchill bowed low. While Morrison summed up government policy (i.e., watch & wait), a coin fell to the floor with a sharp tinkle. In sudden silence, the Speaker demanded to know who had thrown it. Tall, tawny Tory Major Legge-Bourke rose, bitterly explained he had tossed it at the Foreign Secretary to suggest he should "put on another record." Icily the Speaker declared: "I now direct the honorable and gallant gentleman, because of that act, to leave this House." Palefaced, Legge-Bourke bowed and strode from the chamber. The fact was that neither Morrison nor Legge-Bourke nor any other honorable gentleman had advanced a policy.

London took these steps:

P: Sent a King's messenger to the World Court at The Hague, requested an injunction against the seizure. The court promptly scheduled a hearing for June 30, but Iran had already told the court it was not "competent to judge this affair." There was little hope that the court, which has no power to enforce its decisions, could halt the rush of events in Iran.

P: Prepared quietly to evacuate all British nationals from Iran in case they were attacked. The British East Indies fleet was reported standing by; nearly 100 air transports were ready in the Suez Canal zone: they could carry British troops from Cyprus and Port Said to Abadan in five hours. But, said a Foreign Office spokesman: "There will be no order to fly those troops over unless and until disorder breaks out."

The West would give Russia no excuse to march, but Russia might win without marching. Iran was at the point of bankruptcy. On July 1, the 60,000 oil workers would have to be paid. No one knows where the money would come from. The immediate danger in Iran: unemployment, riots that Mossadeq might not be able to control. Waiting for just such a chance: Iran's Tudeh (Communist) party, the best organized political group in Iran. Said a Cassandric London Foreign Office official: "Once again, Russia may get a satellite without moving a single man."

This week twelve fully laden tankers lay in the hot, bustling Persian Gulf port of Abadan, unable to move because Teheran insisted that the tanker captains sign receipts saying they owed the "Iranian National Oil Co." for their cargoes. Ten more days of this and Abadan's storage facilities would overflow, the world's largest refinery would have to shut down.

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