W. Alton Jones of Cities Service Company is in Iran to determine whether Americans can operate the Iranian oil industry. That should have been done at least two years ago. By a mistaken State Department policy of supporting British colonialism throughout the world, the United States has alienated countries that are as important to this country as Great Britain is.

Iran is one of them. It is the keystone, as Persia has always been, to the Middle East. If Soviet Russia conquered Iran (Persia), it would control Iraq, all the Arab countries, including Syria and Egypt and Israel. The independence of Pakistan would be lessened.

If Soviet Russia captured Iranian oil, its military situation would be strengthened. It is occasionally suggested that the Russians could not do the engineering necessary to deliver Iranian oil. This is wishful thinking. Soviet Russia has in recent years performed feats of engineering that would be credit to any country. It is not sound thinking to underestimate Russian strength and ability. No enemy was ever defeated by a country that whistled in the dark.

Iran has no desire to be conquered by Soviet Russia, but it also has no wish to be an economic colony of Great Britain.

Were great statesmen at the helm either in the United States or Great Britain, American companies would have stepped in quickly, as soon as the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was expelled. Had that happened, the Tudeh (Communist) Party would not have been enabled to gain strength because of the frightfully deepening poverty of the people. Our companies were invited to come to Iran on straight management contracts and were not permitted to do that by a colonially-minded State Department. Today, they go in late, but fortunately not too late.

One of the factors in the change of policy is the decision of the International Court of Justice at The Hague which rejected the British claims. The British contentions were disallowed by the court. The London “Times,” in its news story on the subject, said:

“The Persians may . . . claim that the last restrictions on their freedom of action vis-a-vis the oil industry have thus been removed. The (Anglo-Iranian Oil Company), on the other hand, may seek arbitration again under the terms of the 1933 concession agreement.”

Iran would not have needed this decision were it not that while the Persians feared Soviet Russia, they were boycotted by the United States. If Dean Acheson and the British Foreign Office believed that they could bring the Persians to their knees by poverty, disorder, and the rise of the Tudeh Party, they did not understand a nation that was a vast power before Alexander the Great appeared upon the acme of world history.

These older nations need to be reappraised in terms of modern history. They had lost centuries of power, but they have lost none of their traditions of human dignity which they interpret after their own fashion. Perhaps we are beginning to understand something of that in Korea and China. President Truman and Dean Acheson and George Marshall apparently thought that we could conquer Korea with a spit ball but we have been nailed down there in a talk-fest that has lasted 14 months.

Similarly, the British thought that they could monopolize the China trade by swiftly recognizing the government of Mao Tze-tung and by acting as a propagandist against Chiang Kai-shek in this country. Mao Tze-tung has not yet, after nearly three years, recognized Great Britain.

Once these ancient peoples learn to use our tools, our advantage over them is lost. For they apply to those tools an historic perspective and a moral criterion which the pragmatic West rejects for them. The historic criterion is that that country which acts first always has the advantage; the moral criterion is that a people has an inalienable right to its own way of life, to its own form of government and to the fruits of its own land.

Colonialism is dead. It is dead in Asia and in Africa. It is dead in the hearts of the lowliest people. It was dead before World War II started. The tragedy is that the Western countries never recognized the end when it actually happened and therefore increased the bitterness against them.

Throughout our history, up to the days of George Marshall and Dean Acheson, the American people and government opposed colonialism. They reversed our policy after colonialism was dead.