Vice Squad
August 23, 1952 — The News

The Mossadegh Project | August 24, 2017                     


“Britain, Australia, and other nations with a stake in Middle East security cannot view events in Persia with detached aloofness.”

This was the lead and sole editorial in The News of Adelaide, Australia, a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch’s father, journalist Keith Murdoch. Rupert took over as publisher after Keith died in October 1952.

Australian media archive




The News (Adelaide, Australia)

In the grip of fanatic’s vice

BRITAIN again is being squeezed in the vice operated by Persia’s fanatical Dr. Mossadeq .

The Persian Parliament gave the Prime Minister dictatorial powers because he insisted they were necessary to stabilise the country, politically and economically.

Even with these powers, he has not been successful. Riots and lawlessness continue, with extremists of the Left and Right pushing Persia closer to the brink of disaster. A Nazi-like National Socialist group [SUMKA] is competing with the Tudeh (Communist) Party for control of the nation.

Britain, Australia, and other nations with a stake in Middle East security cannot view events in Persia with detached aloofness. Any upheaval extending Soviet influence there would threaten vital lines of communication and supply throughout the area. Britain’s position could hardly be more ironical. The Churchill Government is just as anxious as America to keep the Middle East cauldron from boiling over. [Prime Minister Winston Churchill]

But Britain is asked to give money to a nation which kicked out her citizens, seized the huge Abadan refinery, and thwarted all attempts at sane negotiation of the oil nationalisation dispute. [Britain had withheld back payments to Iran]

Her tragedy is that there may be no alternative to the course urged by the US.


Divvying Up the Loot: The Iran Oil Consortium Agreement of 1954
Divvying Up the Loot: The Iran Oil Consortium Agreement of 1954

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Related links:

Persia Is The Real Loser | The News (Adelaide), March 18, 1952

Persia Reaping The Harvest | The Mercury, July 1, 1952

Loan To Iran | Letter to Editor, The Washington Post (Dec. 1, 1951)



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

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