Persia Without Britain
Dr. Moussadek has proved yet again that his bite is, if anything, worse than his bark. All the last-minute doubts about his intention to break off diplomatic relations with Britain have proved unfounded. The gulf between the two countries is wider. Only the facts of the case, the inevitable decline of the Persian economy -And the possible upheaval of Persian politics, can bring about a new development in Anglo- Persian relations. And Dr. Moussadek is battening down the hatches with the apparent purpose of riding out even those storms, if and when they come. The Shah as a political force was deliberately excluded some months ago. Now the Senate has been put in its place by a sudden alteration in the constitu- tion reducing its maximum term of office to two years and, as a consequence, dissolving it out of hand. And even the Majlis, in the unlikely event of its taking an independent line, could very quickly be called to order by its President, Ayatullah Kashani, who, besides occupying a powerful strategic position, is even more extreme than Dr. Moussadek himself in his deter- mination to keep Persia unspotted from the rest of the world. A return to a primitive, pastoral and utterly poverty-stricken economy would not be too much for him. But it would undoubtedly be a warning example to Iraq and the other Middle Eastern countries where some politicians are showing a tendency to follow Persian courses in order to squeeze more favourable terms from the oil interests.
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