NEWS OF THE WEEK
THOUGH there is as we go to press no confirmation of the 1 report that the Shah of Iran has asked for an armistice, the offers he made to the British and Soviet Ministers on Monday, and the resignation of his Cabinet on Wednesday, suggest that a radical change of policy is probable. That the Allied advances should continue in spite of the Shah's proffered undertakings is inevitable. After the lengthy and abortive negotiations about the expulsion of Germans from Iran no further mere promises to expel them can be adequate. When they are actually gone, and only then, the situation can be reconsidered. There is, moreover, the question of the refuge given to the Iraq rebels by Iran. There is nothing inherently improper in that. This country has made it a matter of pride in the past to offer shelter to rebels against established govern- ment elsewhere. So, even more consistently, has Switzerland. But at a crisis like the present we have to take abnormal measures for our own safety, and there must be an absolute assurance that no Muftis or Rashid Alis or the like shall con- tinue intrigues against us on Iran soil. The best that can be hoped, and it is a quite practical hope, is that the Shah and his new Cabinet may establish the same kind of friendly relations with us as Turkey—bound by pact to both Britain and Iran— has long maintained. In that-case a right of passage through a corner of Iran might be granted voluntarily to give British troops and supplies access to Russian territory.
