NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE inherent difficulties of the Persian situation are well demonstrated in the fate of the British Note to the Persian Government which was delivered last week-end. The Note contained a good deal of precise and logical argument, and ended up with a brief but vague warning. In Persia the argument has been ignored and the warning construed as a threat (perhaps rightly). It is unfortunate that in the present state of affairs the sound of a British, or even of an American, voice is sufficient by itself to set the Persian Press and public into a frenzy ; what is said matters comparatively little. The British Government therefore is still obliged to wait on events, leaving the offer to negotiate open until some Persian in authority chooses to take it up. But in the meantime there may be oppor- tunities in Persia for some preliminary exchanges of the sort which could lead to negotiations. The Commission exists which is supposed to be reporting on how to take over the oil industry ; its members are mostly ignorant of the enterprise on whose future status they are supposed to be going to advise, and more good than harm would come if they could be brought as soon as possible to Abadan to see what goes on there. This might convince them that the practice of nationalisation is not simple, however clear-cut the principle may be in their eyes. But time is short, and is not necessarily working on the side of reason. A bullet or bankruptcy may bring the central Government to anarchy, and nobody has yet suggested how anarchy can fail to be of immediate benefit to the Tudeh Party and their Russian backers.
