13 NOVEMBER 1953, Page 7

A Good Cry

It seems to me typical of Dr. Moussadek that the newspapers in this country and America doggedly insist on spelling his name in at least four different ways. "He always makes the running," said someone, and it is a fair comment. Mopping and mowing, sobbing and screaming, he yet contrives to dominate the court before which he is—in theory, anyhow— being tried. "I am not going to attend the coming sessions, even if you cut off my head "—the threat might have come from the lips of the Red Queen. He reduced the officer defending him to tears by calling him an obscene name, was &proved for talking like a tramp, and a few moments later was referring to the Shah as a nightingale among the Rock of magpies who are the offspring of his father." Dr. Moussadek's indictment asks for the death penalty, but even if at the end of all the hubbub it is imposed it cannot, I believe, be carried out, since no one over 60 can be executed under Persian law. I should not be a bit surprised to see this galvanic and irre- pressible creature restored, within a few months, to a position of supreme power in his curious country. Ile always reminds me of the ghost made of bedclothes in that splendid story of Monty James's, 0 Whistle and I'll Come To You.