Tellers of the Arabian Nights tales seldom placed anyone so exalted as a Grand Vizier on a magic carpet. He wasn’t supposed to need such reinforcement of his power and authority. Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh of Persia, flying to this country on the modern substitute for the flying carpet, an airliner, symbolizes a curious mixture of past and present. In his case, he believes what no Grand Vizier of other days in fabulous Persia would ever have admitted: that there is something substantial to be gained for his cause by flying half way around the earth to plead before the United Nations.

“Our Prime Minister is being taken up into Heaven,” shouted a party of followers as he took off from Teheran. There spoke the authentic voice of the ancient story teller. The plane, its gas-driven propellers, his mission in the oil dispute with Britain, and his destination at the U.N.—all spell out the equally fantastic present. With a wise oil policy administered in the real interests of her impoverished people, and in full awareness of existing world realities, Iran might well enjoy something resembling an earthly Paradise. Her wealth is real.

Thus far, however, she lacks such a policy. Nationalism alone will not produce it, either at home or at the U.N.