Although an Iranian government is now in power which is less unfriendly to Great Britain there is no real reassurance that Britain will regain the oil interests she was forced to vacate during the reign of Premier Mossadegh. But circumstances have changed during the time that Mossadegh ruled and the Shah may now find that his poverty stricken country now needs England a great deal more than England needs the oil.

England has almost recovered from the loss of the Iranian oil and in 1952 her world production was only two million tons less than when she had sixteen million tons from Iran. The total of production by associated British and Dutch oil companies for 1952 was 96,190,000 tons. [Whether this figure is accurate or not, England’s profits had been significantly reduced]

The deficit was made up partially by tapping the oil resources of Kuwait, Iraq and Venezuela. These countries profited from Mossadegh’s dog in-the-manger policy which kept England from producing Iranian oil even though the Iranians themselves were incapable of either producing or marketing it. [Wrong, Iran could still produce crude oil and had willing buyers such as Japan and Italy, yet could not sell due to the British blockade]

These factors put Britain in a better bargaining position than she was in at the time of her withdrawal from Iran. The Shah, with the best of intentions, may find the mistakes of Mossadegh hard to undo.