ANNOUNCEMENT is made in Tehran that, for the first time in six months, the Government will meet its payroll on time.

The loss of royalties from Anglo-Iranian oil operations has forced Mossadegh to look elsewhere for revenue. A commission has been appointed to go out and collect tax arrears over the past 10 years. The rich and influential have made Iran’s income tax a joke by flatly refusing to pay it. They are going to pay up now or Mossadegh will know the reason why.

When a nation has to do something it usually does it. The French, for instance, coughed up $1,000,000,000 quickly enough to end Prussian occupation of their country in 1871. Today, though, they are reputed to have at least $5 billion tucked away in old socks, tin cans and Sevres vases. There, too, it will probably remain, as long as we dole out dollars to them. They also regard paying taxes as an eccentricity.

Why not take a hint from Iran and require our European friends to put their own money to use, as a condition of further aid?