Long Live the Security Council!

The most important event on the world stage last week was something that did not happen. Despite its intense interest and ambitions in the Middle East (see below), Russia failed to react when the Persian Government sent troops into Azerbaijan Province to supervise elections and to reassert Teheran's authority. The outcome was U.N.'s first practical victory in its fight to keep the peace.

Just a year ago a Kremlin-coached team of politicians in Azerbaijan, which adjoins the Soviet border, had proclaimed Azerbaijan "independence." The Teheran Government's fortunes reached a low point last May when it virtually disowned its Washington Ambassador, bright-eyed little Hussein Ala, for pounding the anti-Russian alarm too loudly in the Security Council. Security Council disapproval forced the Red Army to leave all Persia--but skeptics pointed out that Red influence, exerted through the Communist-led Tudeh Party, was still strong in Teheran; they doubted if Premier Ahmad Gavam's Government was free enough to re-establish its sovereignty over Azerbaijan.

Several weeks ago, when Gavam announced that Persian Government troops would be sent into the province, Ivan Sadchikov, Moscow's bald, pink Ambassador to Persia, protested vigorously. Gavam did not back down. On his instructions, Ambassador Ala reported Sadchi-kov's remarks to the Security Council (in his letter they were called "friendly admonitions") and asked the Council to keep an eye on northern Persia. At a Persian Embassy dinner in Washington, word was informally passed that the U.S. would vigorously support "Persia and any other nation that defends its established rights."

Capitulation. The Persian Chief of Staff laid out complete operation plans for invading Azerbaijan. Last week, as zero hour neared, the radio at Tabriz (Azerbaijan's capital) shrilled defiance: "We've issued orders to our army to stop Gavam's troops at all costs. . . . Long live the Azerbaijan nation !"

Grey little Jafar Pishevari, the Azerbaijan leader, waited for word of support from Moscow. It never came. Pishevari capitulated, and then fled across the Soviet border with a few followers. Thousands of Azerbaijani lined the roads and hurrahed Gavam's troops with a cheer never raised before on land or sea: "Long live the Security Council !" The Tabriz radio now said: "Being desirous of . . . proving to the world that we want peace . . . we have decided to help the Government in its task. . . . Long live the sovereignty and independence of Persia !"

In retrospect, Ambassador Ala seemed U.N.'s first hero for his courageous fight last spring. But Gavam had won the other half of Persia's battle by repressive measures against the Tudeh Party. First Gavam broke last July's bloody strike of Tudeh-led Abadan oil workers. In mid-October, he kicked three Tudeh men out of his Cabinet, then muzzled the Tudeh press. Result : an independent, but not a very democratic, Persia.

Greece's Life Blood. U.N.'s Persian victory gave hope that it might be able to stop the splitting of another country, Greece. Russian satellite hands on Greece's northern border effectively blocked control by Athens of a large and important part of the country. Choleric Premier Constantin Tsaldaris, a rightist who refused to take moderates into his Government, flew to New York, shouted at the U.N. Security Council: "This situation, whereby a country which has shed so much of its blood for the common struggle [in World War II] is still being drained of its life blood, cannot continue."

Tsaldaris charged that Yugoslavia is taking in guerrillas from Greece, housing, feeding, training and arming them, and sending them back into Greece to fight. Yugoslavia's Ambassador to the U.S., Sava Kosanovic, hotly denied these accusations, argued that Greece's troubles were entirely due to the blunders and unpopularity of the Government.

Tsaldaris demanded an investigation. Since Kosanovic also demanded one, the Security Council probably would send investigators to Greece at the earliest possible moment, unless Russia vetoes.

On both sides of the prized Dardanelles area--in Greece as in Persia--the struggle for the Straits had developed into a question of whether the Security Council could cope with "internal" revolts inspired in part by external pressures.

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