Ruinous Slide
September 17, 1952 — The Advertiser

The Mossadegh Project | December 19, 2019                                


The Advertiser (Adelaide, South Australia) based this editorial on their front page wire news article headlined "Mossadeq Threatens Britain". The newspaper closed in 1954.



The Advertiser (Adelaide, South Australia) newspaper

DEALING WITH DR. MOSSADEQ

If, after the way their latest offer has been treated, the British and American Governments were to tell Dr. Mossadeq that they were not interested in trying to settle the oil dispute until he is prepared to behave reasonably, they would have every justification on their side.

The temptation to do so must be very strong. It was galling enough to have their joint proposals, to which President Truman and Mr. Churchill gave their personal blessing, rejected almost as soon as they had been read. [Harry Truman and Winston Churchill] What made the matter worse was the fact, now revealed in Washington, that the main points of the proposal had been suggested by Dr. Mossadeq himself.

And now, to cap everything, the two Governments find themselves the targets for further abuse by every mouthpiece of Persian nationalism. The notorious Kashani, fresh back from a pilgrimage to Mecca, is, as always, leading the trumpeting by declaring that the Anglo-American proposals, if accepted, would “tarnish the national honor.” [Ayatollah Kashani]

But it stands out dearly that exasperation will get Britain and the United States nowhere. The fact is that Dr. Mossadeq dare not be reasonable. He lives with the dangerous thought that if he were to consent to any settlement which even faintly suggested that he was lowering his demands he would be swept aside by the fanatics of the National Front and the more calculating Communists who together maintain him in office. Thus, what he would do one day he shrinks from doing the next.

He is now asking the Majlis to endorse perfectly outrageous “counter-proposals.” They will certainly mean putting the negotiations back to where they started from, but better that than no negotiations at all. Britain and the United States are compelled to make the best of a woeful situation or let Persia continue her ruinous slide into bankruptcy and chaos.

Divvying Up the Loot: The Iran Oil Consortium Agreement of 1954
Divvying Up the Loot: The Iran Oil Consortium Agreement of 1954

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Related links:

Juggler On A Tight Rope | The Advertiser, August 25, 1952

Mossadeq’s Mission | The Daily Examiner, October 18, 1952

On the road to chaos | The News (Adelaide), October 23, 1952



MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”

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