We should not underestimate the gravity of what is going on in Persia. It is all very well to laugh at the irony of it all—the protests from a British Socialist government against Persia’s decision to nationalize oil—but there is more to it than that. Middle-Eastern oil is vital to the West’s defence; and if these oilfields fell under Russia’s domination our whole position east of Suez would be as good as lost.

Few people, probably, ever expected to see a British Labor government dispatching cruisers and assembling parachute brigades to defend British commercial interests abroad. This, according to all the books, is the policy of outworn, out-moded imperialist regimes, with which Socialism has nothing in common. But the responsibilities of office have taught Britain’s Socialists that Britain’s interests do not change simply because the government is of a different color.

Washington has been something less than far-seeing in its attitude to the whole Persian affair. Not long ago, American oil companies in Saudi Arabia agreed to boost their royalty payments to King Ibn Saud to 50 per cent. (The normal royalty in Alberta is 12½ per cent.) It was the sight of this pot of gold falling into the hands of their neighbors which inspired the unstable Persians to launch their present campaign. Evidently, the Americans did not think to consult the British and devise a common, united policy which could be applied to all the Middle-Eastern fields simultaneously.

The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (in which the principal shareholder is the British government itself) eventually offered a 50 per cent royalty in respect of oil produced in Persia. But it did so too late; by the time this offer was made, the campaign for outright nationalization of the Persian fields had gained irresistible momentum. The problem now is to ensure that Persian oil goes to the West and not to Russia.

This is the real crux of the matter. The question of ownership of the fields and refineries in Persia is of no great consequence (except to the former shareholders) so long as these facilities are efficiently run and so long as the West gets the product. What the British have realized all along, and what the Americans have suddenly and belatedly wakened up to, is that the danger of the product of Persian fields falling into Russia’s hands is immensely greater now that the fields are the property of an unpredictable Persian government.

This, it will be said, sounds like power politics. Well, so it is; but what other kind of politics is there? We are not dealing now with moral niceties but with the harsh problems of survival. Britain, obviously, is prepared to fight for Persian oil, and if the rest of the free world has any sense it will be on Britain’s side in the fight.