March 18, 1952 — The News
The Mossadegh Project | June 22, 2017 |
Lead 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.
Persia is the real loser
HOPES of ending the present self destructive attitude of the Persian Government on its oil exports are dying.
The World Bank negotiators are leaving Tehran today, having found the fanatical Dr. Mossadeq as obstructive and unrealistic as the British Government found him nine months ago.
Drying up of their overseas credits, the slow breakdown of their international trade, and the impoverishment of tens of thousands of their citizens have taught the Persian Ministers nothing.
[Largely due to the British blockade of Iranian oil exports to the world market, withholding of oil royalty payments for months by the AIOC and Britain’s freezing of Iranian assets in their banks.]
The communique from Tehran indicates that the Persians still harbor the same delusions about splitting Britain and the United States and still cherish the mirage of an oil industry operated without a single Briton.
ANOTHER REBUFF
People in many parts of the world are the poorer for the drying up of this Persian oil production. But no country has suffered as much as Persia herself.
The failure of the latest negotiations is another rebuff to those who pin their hopes to reason and to the ideal that in the long run reason will prevail—even where national susceptibilities are involved.
Dr. Mossadeq and his colleagues seem to provide a classic warning to other leaders of the new Nationalist feelings now spreading throughout Asia.
The sufferings of the Persians will offer a new and fruitful playground for Moscow agents.
Related links:
Iran on a Limb | Oakland Tribune, February 27, 1952
Persia Is Our Problem | The Argus (Melbourne), October 2, 1951
Time For Action | The Key West Citizen, October 21, 1952
MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”




