June 1, 1951 — The Townsville Daily Bulletin
The Mossadegh Project | August 6, 2024 |
Lead and sole editorial on Iran in The Townsville Daily Bulletin of Queensland, Australia. Their front page headline was “PERSIA WILL COMPENSATE OIL COMPANY”.
PERSIAN PATCHWORK
The background of the Persian oil crisis is slowly being revealed. At first there were doubts concerning the part played in Persia by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and the suggestion from Persia was that the company simply existed to “exploit” Persia. “Exploit” was used in its worst sense, and reproachful glances were cast at the British Government which, as the largest share holder, was to be the most blamed.
Now the picture clears. The Persian claim to the right as a nation to nationalise its own resources is not in question, even if the Persian Parliament’s act of legislation is characterised as “nationalisation.” Oil has always been regarded as national property in Persia, although, when the company first prospected there was no known oilfield in Persia, and earlier attempts had failed. In the course of 80 years much money was spent in seeking oil in Persia, by Persia’s permission but not at Persia’s expense. There were many duffers drilled in that time and only eight fields found to be productive. [Aussie slang indicating sites were barren]
By the concession given to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which permits operations over only a sixth-part of the country, the company’s installations are—or were— due to be handed over to the nation in 1993. In Article 21 of the Agreement, ratified by the Persian Parliament in 1933, the Government agreed not to alter nor annul its terms by general or special legislation, by administrative measures, or by executive acts. In view of this agreement the company invested many millions in the fields, money which otherwise would not have been invested in Persia. The cost of the housing programme alone is said to have been £28,600,000 and roads, hospitals and schools have been built by the company. In 1950 medical and other health services cost the company £2,000,000.
It is claimed, of course, that Persia seeks to do nothing that the British Government itself has not done in the nationalisation of the mines and railways in Britain. But Britain had not given the mine-owners nor the railway companies at any time any solemn undertaking not to nationalise. The Persian case is bad in law, it is bad in fact, and it is unsound in a world where nations should strive for amity instead of division.
Britain has contributed capital, technical and business experience to the provision of the much needed raw material—oil. Persia contributed the permission to find the oil and market it, and received substantial royalties. The company received the profits its salesmanship could achieve, and 70,000 Persian citizens received £17,000,000 a year in wages. The Persian policy is seen to be a barefaced breach of contract. A parallel case would be in our own perpetual land lease arrangements. The Crown leases a portion of land for a period, reserving the right to end the lease at the elapse of a certain time. It is in the lease that at the end of the lease the improvements may be removed by the lessor, and that the Crown will take them over only if they are left on the site beyond the period allowed for their removal. If the Crown ended the lease at the end of five years instead of at the end of 15, and if the Crown then, without redress or compensation, in violation of its lease, confiscated the improvements, we should have a parallel with the present Persian policy.
The exploitation, then, is not on the part of any group of alleged rapacious British merchants, aided and abetted by a vicious British Government which is a party to the “grinding of the faces of the poor” in Persia. The exploitation is on the part of a group of irresponsible politicians, and irrespective of whether the motives are hidden behind the Iron Curtain or under a Persian carpet, they must carry the blame of lowering the honour of proud Persia and of retarding the harmony which should exist between the nations.
Related links:
Premier Clement Attlee’s Message To British Oil Workers (Aug. 23, 1951)
Iran And Hugoton | The Hutchinson News-Herald (Kansas), July 16, 1951
The Situation In Persia | House of Lords, June 26, 1951
MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”




