IRAN: Carpet for Sale

In his camel-hair bathrobe, Mohammed Mossadegh sat up in bed and received Hjalmar Schacht, chief fixer of Nazi Germany’s elastic currency. In Teheran at Mossadegh’s summons to take a look at Iran’s Scheherazadian finances, Schacht presented Mossy with a plan to stave off bankruptcy. Main feature: increase the amount of money in circulation by 20%. He also pointed out that there was no real hope of balancing the books unless Mossy could reopen the source of nine-tenths of Iran’s national income: the refinery at Abadan. Schacht added bluntly: Iranians are “lazy,” ought to work harder.

Mossadegh also talked to U.S. Oilman W. Alton Jones, who, it was rumored, was trying to buy up Iranian oil (see BUSINESS). To his visitors, the old man seemed readier last week to make a deal with Britain than he had at any time in the last six months. Yet he still talked about $150 million, with no strings attached, as his price for reopening negotiations. U.S. Ambassador Loy Henderson and British Charge d’Affaires George Middleton did not think Britain ought to pay that much, but they did bombard Washington and London with urgent pleas for some further concessions to Mossadegh. By week’s end London was still standing pat on its previous offer (to buy Iranian oil now in storage tanks, price to be fixed later, plus a $10 million bonus thrown in by the U.S.). The U.S., whose policy is to let the British have their way in Iran, let them have their way. A Western diplomat in Teheran wryly remarked that bargaining with Mossadegh reminded him of a Persian rug dealer who keeps upping his price each time he opens his mouth. The analogy might be apt, but unless Washington and London make some real effort to get Mossy’s carpet while it is still for sale, the dealers in the Kremlin may still pick it up free.