Premier Mossadegh orders the 300 British technicians still at Abadan to leave Iran by October 4. They have been denied occupancy of the air-conditioned homes built specially to make it possible for them to live in a torrid climate and groceries and restaurants upon which they are dependent have been closed.

The Britons, declared Mossadegh, may not remain in Iran “under any conditions.” But the British Cabinet is reported to have decided to disobey the Premier’s order of expulsion. British warships and parachute troops are stationed within 50 miles of the great Abadan refinery. Speedy armed intervention is thus possible, but it would be a venturesome violation of Iranian sovereignty, could and probably would invite Russia to move into Azerbaijan in North Iran and would be a strengthening of the well disciplined Tudeh (Communist) party and a gift to the rising nationalistic spirit of Iran and the whole Near and Far East.

It would certainly be viewed with misgivings by the United States Government and also by France, involved as she is in the continuing warfare in Indochina.