Premier Mossadegh of Iran, who apparently never gets out of bed except to get into another one, has surprised nobody at all by rejecting another British offer for settlement of the long-standing oil dispute.

It seems pretty unlikely that Mossadegh ever will find a British proposal palatable. Why should he? He has founded a successful career on opposition to Britain. It is his stock in trade. Without it he’d have nothing left but those well-worn pajamas, which he has practically elevated to the status of a uniform.

Mossadegh is plainly confident he soon will be able to market Iranian oil without British approval, so he feels no compulsion to abandon his politically rewarding stubbornness.

But to the outsider it still looks like quite a contest–whether Iranian oil will find a world market before the tottering Iranian economy crumbles.