A new test is due Thursday on the policy followed by aged Premier Mossadegh of Iran in shutting down the operations of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. On that day the Iranian Senate is to vote on a motion of no confidence in that policy.

The Senate consists of 60 members chosen in 1950 for six-year terms—30 appointed by the Shah, 15 elected from Tehran, 15 from outside the capital. The government is supposed to be responsible to the Parliament; so that a Senate vote of no confidence could mean the replacement of Mossadegh by a premier who would follow a new policy on Iranian oil.

The Iranian government nationalized the oil industry last May, taking over the properties of the Anglo-Iranian company in which the British government holds a controlling interest. Iran said it was willing to compensate for the properties taken over and to furnish oil to Anglo-Iranian (at a price, of course) for transportation to its customers. But actual production was denied to “foreigners,” and no oil has been produced in Iran since Midsummer.