Persian Oil
There has never been in this country much disposition to take seriously the demand of Persian nationalists that their oil industry should be nationalised. The Persian Government, it is argued, cannot carry on without the royalties which the oil com- pany pays, and without foreign technicians in most of the responsible jobs there would be no chance of the Persian oil industry carrying on for more than a week. But this comforting argument ignores the capacity of nationalism for cutting off its nose to spite its face. (The Iraq Government, for example, has deprived itself for three years of the bulk of its oil royalties rather than allow any of its oil to reach Israel.) In Persia today there are a number of fanatical patriots who would find the nationalisation of oil all the more attractive if the oil industry did as a consequence crumble to nothing. True, if there was no oil industry the country would be bankrupt. But this itself is a prospect which is the reverse of alarming to the mujtahids and mullahs, who hanker for the days when Persia was as remote from the West as Tibet, and when the central govern- ment was usually penniless and therefore powerless. As for the argument that a weak Persia would be quickly overrun by Russia. this is usually dismissed as unproved ; the Persians have an almost boundless confidence in their capacity to bamboozle the Russians one way or another. Public opinion in favour of oil- nationalisation is very strong ; this is not the same as saying that public opinion supports the technique of assassination or that it is actively disloyal to the Shah, but it does mean that it is going to be extraordinarily difficult to get any Mejlis to ratify a new agreement with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Nor has the oil company itself done all it could to hasten an agreement. For the improved royalties offered by the company are still not as good as those the Americans usually grant ; more Persian nationals could and should be employed in the com- pany (there is not a single Persian director on the Board), and such concessions as have been made in the course of negotia- tions have usually not been accompanied by that generous flourish which might give them the air of being spontaneous.
Previous page
