Front Man

Someone else was trying to solve the Iranian problem last week. Her name was Madame Sadika Garagozlou. She was a slim ash blonde with full-blown lips and eyes that would melt the heart of an Italian galley pirate, if not of a British diplomat. In Rome last week, she left behind a trail of perfume, but what she had to sell was more pungent: Iranian oil.

Born in Berlin of Egyptian parents (35 years ago, by ungallant guess), Sadika went to Cairo after war broke out, and set up a perfume shop. Says she: "I've liked selling ever since." In the social whirl of Cairo, Sadika met Mouhsine Garagozlou,handsome young Persian diplomat. Sadika married Mouhsine and moved on to the gayer life of the Persian court. But she still pined to go back into business.

Her chance came last year with the expropriation of British oil properties in Iran. Sadika helped set up the National Iranian Development Corp., which was to sell Iran's nationalized oil abroad, and became its vice president. Late this spring an Italian operator took a shipment of Iranian oil (TIME, June 30). Sadika held her breath while the Italian tanker tried to get through to Naples, practically wept when the ship's owner capitulated to the British (who treat Iranian oil as contraband) and put in at Aden. Swallowing her tears, Sadika Garagozlou then & there decided to buck the British.

She took off for Paris and Geneva and in a few weeks--by her account--she sold 2,500,000 tons of oil at bargain prices. But: no tankers to deliver the goods. Shipowners were chary of the stern British threat to sue any owner who loaded Iranian oil. Sedika moved on to Rome, set up two corporations, and started looking for men with tankers. At Rome's swank Excelsior Hotel, Mme. Garagozlou explained: "I am the--how do you call it--front man. I make the contacts."

She added confidently: "I am sure we will be able to start shipping in a few weeks. I even have the promise of one American tanker."

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