Mr. Harriman on Persia
The part which Mr. Averell Harriman, President Truman's special representative, has played in the Persian oil dispute has been so valuable, and the part he can still play is so important, that the comments which he has made this week on the present situation deserve to be studied with some care. The comments which stand out are three—that a sound basis has been laid for a settlement, that the next move must be made by the Persians, and that a cooling-off period is now desirable. They all need to be expanded. On the face of it, the only sound basis for a settlement is a clear recognition by the Persian Government that the performance of the practical task of producing and selling oil must be provided for before questions of ownership or political control can have any real meaning. And if Dr. Mossadaq and his supporters really have got as far as that, then the hopefulness about the outcome which both Mr. Harriman and Mr. Stokes have expressed is partly justified. It is not fully justified, since Persia is soon to face a General Election, in which Dr. Mossadaq may have to fall back on his irrational argument that nationalisa- tion imore important than production or in which he may have to give way to some other politician who does not recognise Mr. Harriman's " sound foundation." 9n Mr. Harriman's second point—that the next move must be made by the Persians—there is also some room for clarification, for there is no evidence from their past behaviour that their next move will be sensible, and they are at present insisting that the British must reply to Dr. Mossadaq's last memoranffum. Presumably what Mr. Harriman expects is a constructive response to Mr. Stokes's requirement that the oil extraction and refining operations shall be under the immediate direction of a British general manager. In any case, the statement that there should be a cooling-off period is sound, for all the signs are that Dr. Mossadaq and his friends have a long way to go before they reach a really practical policy.
