Aftermath of Murder

"After black there is no color."

Hussein Fatimi, a National Front leader and editor, quoted this old Iranian saying last week, to describe the condition of his country. "That's where we are now. Nothing could be any worse than it is."

Fatimi had had a good deal to do with putting his country where it is. The violent crusade of the National Front for immediate nationalization of Iran's oil, the threats against those who disagreed, had brought political assassination back to Iran and had made Iran's Communists bold. Last week, under martial law after the murders of Premier AH Razmara and Education Minister Dr. Abdul Zanganeh, Teheran was quiet, but police picked up 25 gun-toting men.

Strike Wave. In southern Iran the Communists, using loudspeakers, incited 12,000 of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co.'s 80,000 workers into a strike. In Masjid-i-Suleiman strikers asked for a pay rise; at Agha Jari, they wanted control of the A.I.O.C. Transport system. The Reds were concerned only with spreading unrest.

It spread. At Abadan 300 students walked out of A.I.O.C. classes, demanding that passing grades be lowered from 50% to 30%. In Isfahan, jobless textile workers demonstrated in front of the Governor General's palace.

As weary, 68-year-old Premier Hussein Ala caught up with one crisis, the Frontists created another. An extreme rightist group, usually hostile to the Communists, they took the side of the strikers last week. In a letter to Premier Ala, the Frontists expressed "strong suspicions" that the A.I.O.C. was provoking the workers into striking, and asked an on-the-spot investigation. (The A.I.O.C. called the charge absurd.) Ala asked the Frontists to see him. He talked to Editor Fatimi and a National Front deputy for two hours, agreed to the investigation, and the Council of Ministers promptly appointed the committee that the National Front had asked for.

Still not satisfied, Fatimi told newsmen that Anglo-Iranian must go: the Frontists would rather sell the oil to the Russians or leave it in the ground than let the British get it. He indirectly threatened Hussein Ala, who has yet to declare himself on the nationalization question: "Anyone who tries to reverse nationalization will be liquidated."

Moscow's Delight. At week's end Ala called the Majlis into special session, to ask its approval of his proclamation of martial law. Editor Fatimi called the step illegal.

Meanwhile, Great Britain, whose inept handling of Iran's demands for greater oil royalties had made nationalization a popular issue, ordered the 8,000-ton cruiser Gambia to the port of Abadan. Gleefully, Moscow papers reported the news.

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