A Shoulder To Cry On

November 15, 1951 — The Gazette


The Mossadegh Project | February 22, 2022                   


A saucy editorial on Iran in The Gazette newspaper (Montreal, Canada).




WILL MOSSADEGH FIND
A FELLOW WEEPER?

Premier Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran has delayed his departure from Washington until Sunday, so he and his party may make a side-trip to Egypt on their flight home. This decision has been made despite the fact that opposition in Iran to Mossadegh’s oil program has been growing and that the Shah has requested his immediate return.

“The Prime Minister is especially anxious to accept the invitation since Iran has very good relations with Egypt,” said an Iranian Embassy spokesman.

What are the foundations of these “good relations?” What subjects are the Iranians and Egyptians likely to discuss?

Both countries are Moslem, both countries are extreme examples of a kind of vicious feudalism possible only in the East and both are the sites of vast and strategic British investments (Although the Suez Canal company is French, operated by French personnel, Britain gained a large portion of control by buying Egypt’s block of shares, after the canal was built.) Both countries, in direct repudiation of contracts legally entered into, are seeking to throw out the British.

In each country, “hate Britain” campaigns are being deliberately used to distract attention from the corruption and inefficiency of the home governments and the miserable lot of the great mass of the people.

It would he understandable if the two governments, opposing a common “enemy” should support and encourage each other in that opposition. But it is as possible that each may confirm the other’s fears that both have gone too far, tried too much and already face disastrous failure.

Iran is in desperate financial and economic straits. Egypt’s actions in the Suez area have resulted in social and commercial chaos at home and the growing animosity of her Arab neighbors, which she has dreams of leading in a pan-Islamic empire. And Britain — “Some chicken, some neck!” — is still standing firm. [Refers to a defiant applause line from Winston Churchill’s address to the Canadian Parliament on Dec. 30, 1941]

The meeting of Mossadegh and Farouk in Cairo next week may be a memorable one. Mossadegh may have company, this time, as he weeps. [Mossadegh met with King Farouk on his second day in Cairo]


Cartoon by John Collins (1917-2007), The Montreal Gazette, Nov. 2, 1951


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Related links:

Remembrance of Glory Past? | October 16, 1951 editorial

Thousands Hail Mossadegh As Hero As He Returns Home | AP, Nov. 23, 1951

The Bully’s Role | The San Francisco Examiner, August 12, 1953



MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”

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