Trial in Teheran
Stn,—How irksome that apparently Quooclle, too (October 22), has been gulled into repeating the vicious propaganda attack on the Iranian Govern' ment mounted .by a clique of conspirators. Using as a convenient pretext the imagined plight of fourteen defendants now being tried in Teheran 01 charges accusing them of various offences against the State, a well-organised assortment of left-wing and anti-Monarchist intriguers have for months Pre; ceding the trial spewed out a continuing barrage °` outright lies and other slanders concerning the treat" ment of the accused and the nature of the courts proceedings.
That they have failed miserably to achieve anything more positive than occasional publication of their slanders in a certain section of the British press ideologically receptive to that species of persuasion is perhaps a true measure of the worthlessness of their vile attacks. As Quoodlc himself put it last week, 'in recent years Persia has acquired an enviable reputa- tion among the turbulent countries of the Middle East.' It is at least conceivable that by far the preponderant weight of informed British public opinion, based in large part upon the judgments of a moderate and responsible press, falls heavily on the side of Quoodlc in that respect
Certainly it was disappointing to find Quoodle commenting on the merits of a case which is sub judice. The fact that the trial is taking place in Persia does not remove the patent impropriety of his appar- ent prejudgment of the validity of the prosecution's case For him to have done so in respect of a case in a similar state of due process in this country would have been, of course, at his and the Spectator's peril. N. SHIRZAD Press Counsellor Imperial Iranian Embassy, Sloane Street, SW1
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