Worse than Mossadegh

In Washington, Iran's Premier Mossadegh waited for somebody--the U.S. or Britain--to take him up on his own terms. So far as anyone could tell, Britain still hoped that the longer the waiting went on, and Mossadegh's troubles at home multiplied, the sooner would Mossadegh seek a way to get oil flowing to the West and money flowing into Iran's treasury. Iranian oil was trickling, but not to the West. Teheran announced that "with God's help," and no foreign engineers, it had started operating part of the Abadan refinery.

Britain's new Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, seemed more confident than Labor had been that something could be worked out. At least there was now a moratorium on nasty British cracks, like Laborite Richard Stokes's recent remark that Mossadegh "wouldn't know how to manage a sweet shop."

But there was no moratorium on unrest in Teheran.

The Communist Tudeh (masses) Party was busy. In recent months, droves of Russian agents have been sneaking across Iran's all but unguarded northeastern border. Their mission: to stir up riots and mastermind the revolution when Iran is judged ripe to be taken over. Of the same stock and tongue as northern Iranians, the agents from Russian Turkistan are well-trained and well-heeled. The agents steer clear of the big Russian embassy on Churchill Avenue, and get their orders from the Rumanian legation.

The Tudeh Party was outlawed in 1949, but is actually stronger than ever, working through such thinly disguised aliases as "The Society to Fight Imperialistic Oil Companies in Iran," and "The Society for Freedom of Iran."

Last week, torn by Red agitation, Teheran University shut down indefinitely, and police barred the doors. In another part of the city, 500 anti-Communist students from Alborz (formerly American) College marched on the headquarters of the Communist Partisans of Peace, along the way clashed violently with 500 proCommunists. Ten people were injured.

Unpredictable, fanatic Premier Mossadegh might not win any popularity polls in the West as the man diplomats most liked to dicker with, but the growing alternative looked worse.

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