In all the discussions of the Iranian crisis there has been too much concentration on the importance of Iran’s oil and not enough consideration of the other strategic considerations that are involved. Iran’s oil, five or six per cent of the world’s supply, is important to the West and badly needed by oil-starved Russia; but there’s more to Iran than oil.

Get out your atlas and take a look at Iran. It’s a big country which ties Asia Minor to Asia proper. It has warm-water ports on the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean—Russia has dreamed of owning such ports since the days of Peter the Great. It has a common boundary with Russia and Turkey at a point in the Caucasus near the biblical Mt. Ararat. If it should fall into Communist hands, Turkey with its fine army of half a million would be outflanked.

The loss of Iran, a Mohammedan country, would threaten the neighboring Mohammedan countries of Iraq (Mesopotamia) and Saudi Arabia, both likewise rich oil, both presenting similar problems of the relationship between foreign oil companies and native governments.

So oil is but one of the reasons why the West can’t afford to push Iran into the hands of the Tudeh.

We hope that Foreign Minister Morrison’s conciliatory statement of yesterday will prevent this Memorial Day, which the Iranian government had set as a deadline for British acquiescence, from becoming a day of violence and bloodshed in that vital corner of the world. [Herbert Morrison in the House of Commons acquiescing to “some form of nationalization”]

Britain and Iran seem already in agreement on general principles. They’re saying the same thing. It’s only the threatening manner in which they state their positions which makes them appear to be conflicting.

Iran’s Prime Minister says the oil properties must be nationalized, but that the owners will be compensated. [Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh] Britain says she recognizes that nationalization is inevitable, but that she insists on compensation.

Surely if the West is patient and sympathetic, the leaders of Iran must in time realize that they have already won, in substance at least, what they are asking.