Ambassador Grady [Henry F. Grady] delivered the wrong note, but it looks as though things might possibly come out all right anyway.

The ambassador, who is our envoy to troubled Iran, had two messages from President Truman—one for Prime Minister Attlee [Clement Attlee] and one for Iran’s Premier Mossadegh. He got them mixed up.

All of which illustrates the fact that it’s always nice to say good things about people. Mr. Truman might have written to his friend Mr. Attlee that he thought Iran was being very sticky indeed over the Anglo-Iranian oil matter.

He didn’t though. To both Attlee and Mossadegh he had written he hoped everything could come out amicably.

As luck would have it, while Ambassador Grady was busy straightening out his delivery problems things did take a turn for the better. Britain announced that within a few days a delegation would be sent to Tehran for “full and frank discussion” of Iran’s nationalization of the billion-dollar British oil concern.

This is good news. The dispute in Iran has already caused assassination and was bidding fair to set off a war. If it can be settled without further bloodshed the whole world will be fortunate indeed.