In a sharp change of its previous attitude, the harassed government of Iran has suggested that the World Bank should temporarily take over management of the nationalized Iranian oil industry, under condition that complete control not be taken from the government. The purpose of the move would be to get the refineries into operation again, bring customers back to Iranian ports and thus bring revenue from the oil into the Iranian treasury once more. An advance of capital from the Bank, meantime, would not be unwelcome.

Previously Iran has been opposed to any scheme of outside management of the oil industry, and has insisted that it wants nothing from the Western nations except money and customers. In their new stand, the nation’s leaders confess that foreign technicians would be useful, and that even foreign management, if it must come with the technicians, might be better than nothing. The hot-blooded rulers of Iran may have learned that lesson; it is a valuable one.

If there ever was a day of the self-sufficient nation, it is past. Every nation needs something from the other nations of the world, and in particular the underdeveloped ones need the benefit of the scientific and industrial experience of the more advanced nations. That experience cannot be handed out as mere gifts of money and machines, but must be brought by skilled workers and supervisors. Foreign capital and management, if restrained from predatory exploitation, can produce profits and benefits not only for themselves but also for the nations in which they operate.