June 2, 1951 — The Courier
| Arash Norouzi The Mossadegh Project | November 23, 2020 |
Percival Leroy Prattis (1895-1980), journalist, reporter, foreign correspondent, and executive editor of the nationally circulated black newspaper The Pittsburgh Courier wrote the following column on the Iranian oil crisis.
Befuddled by all the “hullaboo”, Prattis was irked by reports that the British refused to teach the Iranians how to operate the oil refinery.
June 2, 1951
THE HORIZON
By P. L. Prattis
British Kept Iranians From Learning Western Oil Production Methods
SEVENTY FIVE per cent of the oil used by Western Europe comes from underdeveloped countries, principally in Asia.
Much of this oil is supplied by Iran (Persia). If Western Europe lost this source of supply, the United States would face the possibility of being required to make up the loss. The American people would have to sacrifice some of their present consumption to help keep Western Europe going.
The oil crisis in Iran therefore is of vital significance to us. It might mean ultimately that you’ll have to put your car in storage.
But, as in most things. I suppose I am just a bit dumb about this Iranian oil subject. I fail to understand why there should be such a great hullabaloo, or, if there should be such a hullabaloo, why all the onus of the situation should attach to the Persians.
• • •
MY UNDERSTANDING at present is somewhat as follows: A private concern, stockholdered principally by the English, has been exploiting the petroleum resources of Iran. This concern is known as the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
The officers and technicians of this company have been principally English.
Apparently, political groups in Iran reached the conclusion that the Persians were not getting enough for their oil and that the people would benefit if control of the oil resources and the Anglo-Iranian Company was taken over by the Government. This meant, of course, Iranian Government seizure of what had been British properties. Certainly, arrangements would be made to pay for the properties, or to recompense the English for anything they lost.
However, the great cry of the English is not that they will not be paid, or that the Iranians do not have a right to their own resources, but, rather, that the Iranians do not know how to operate the wells and the machinery. They are horrified at the prospect of valuable machinery being damaged or destroyed by Iranians who don’t know what they are doing.
• • •
IN SUCH a situation, production would necessarily sharply decline and Europe would have to look elsewhere for oil.
The English may be right about the lack of technical proficiency among the Iranians. But if they are, whose fault is it?
It seems to me that in the answer to this question may be discovered much of what is wrong so far as the relations of Europeans with Asiatics is concerned.
I do not know exactly how long the English have been drilling for oil in Iran. [The D’arcy concession dated to 1901] But I do know they have been in there for many years. They have certainly been there long enough to share their skill and knowledge with the Iranians and to train Iranians to handle the machinery.
They can’t say the Iranians are an inferior people, incapable of learning. That simply is not true.
But it has been the practice of the Western powers to restrict to themselves certain knowledge and certain operations as a mean of retaining control.
• • •
IF THE English had opened the doors of training to the Iranians, these people themselves would be prepared to operate the wells now and to service Europe’s needs. The cry the British are putting up is a cry of convenience, designed in the pattern of things colonial, to be used as a control device.
Even if the Iranians do not know how to operate the wells, they can operate them by employing the English technicians who do know how—if these technicians will work for the Iranians and if they will perform honest service.
Most of the myth of inferiority which has been spread around the world could be explained away on the same basis discovered in this Iranian oil claim. It is not that people don’t know or can’t learn. It is rather that control (and often robbery) can only be maintained by keeping others in ignorance.
Related links:
Persian Oil Dispute | House of Lords, May 29, 1951
Iran Premier Blames British For Oil Crisis | AP, June 28, 1951
What’s Wrong With Tears? | Max Lerner, October 3, 1951
MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”
