Dr. Moussadek Spies Strangers
Britain is being made to play the part of the Opposition in a singularly dirty Persian General Election. Dr. Moussadek is a shrewd, but not a scrupulous, politician, and Britain need not expect any of the normal diplomatic decencies to be extended to her as long as the election campaign is under way —which in Persia may mean many months. Like many Eastern politicians before him, Dr. Moussadek is discovering that there is no adequate substitute for attacking Britain as a rallying cry for nationalism. It was opposition to the Oil Company which brought him fame and the Premiership; now the Oil Company has disappeared, without any tangible benefits resulting and a new target has to be found. Hence the attack on the British consulates and on personally Mr. Hankey. It is quite true that we kept more consulates in Persia than were strictly needed after our withdrawal from India; it is also true that some of their activities could be called interference in Persia's internal affairs—the consuls, who have for the most part been men of considerable ability and great knowledge of the country, have frequently used their influence to alleviate the grosser incompetences and injustices of Persian adminis- tration. But the real reason behind the demand for the abolition of the consulates is that it gives an embarrassed Government something to do. In the same way the refusal of a agrement to the appointment of Mr. Hankey as Ambassador to replace Sir Francis Shepherd is more than a piece of diplomatic bad manners. To fit in with the picture now being popularised of a frustrated Britain scheming to worm her way back into Persia, Mr. Hankey's appointment must be given a sinister interpretation, even if the only grounds available are that he has previously served in the Tehran Embassy. All this may be very silly, but it also is serious. Neither Dr. Moussadek nor the Persian people can live for ever on fairy stories. They cannot even, for the matter of that, live for long on the strictly controlled dollars which, it has now been agreed, are to be pro- vided for Persia under the Point Four programme.
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