(By J. SAMIANY)

The country of Roses and Nightingales.

The country of Lion, Sun and Sword,

The center of the Old Persian Empire,

The oldest nation in the World’s History.

(These are the names that my country is sometimes called.)

Beyond the Persian Gulf, and in the center of Asia, there is a country called Iran, or Persia. It was called Iran in the whole historical life of my country, but the Europeans used to call it Persia up to 1925.

This country is not a new born country, but has a long history from 6000 B.C. Iran is a monarchical country which has been the rule there as far as the history shows. We have a parliament and a democratic government. The parliament consists of two houses, Majlis and Sana. The population is 22 million as the official report on March 1951.

You must have heard about the famous Iranian miniatures, silver-works, caviar, oil, lamb skin, carpets and many other things.

As the result of my contact with American friends on this campus, I realized that there are many questions that have puzzled the American public in regard to our nationalization of oil law. In order to really understand the course of action taken by the Iranian anthorities in fulfillment of their duties as representatives of the people, the historical background and facts about the necessity of implementing this national aspiration should be born in mind. It is to this end that I shall here attempt to give some facts which led to the course of action that was taken.

There have been a great many articles published lately in the American press concerning Iranian oil. Unfortunately a good deal of the information presented to the American presented the people has misrepresented the Iranian case. The political interference of the European countries in Iran has always been a source of great disturbance. These disturbances have contributed a great deal to the backwardness of my country. If Iran had been left intact from all outside political interferences, she could now be able to stand on her feet.

Speaking of the oil problem I want to say something about the man who really saved his country from many difficulties not only arising from the oil case, but also from Communism. In fact Communism is coming to any country which poverty is governing.

This great man is Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh, who has been the first national premier in the past century. He was the man who secured the freedom and who raised up to get what Americans got about 200 years ago.

The fact is that Anglo-American Oil Company had treated the Iranian government and her people very poorly. While the company has built up a multi-billion dollar enterprise, the Iranian people have not benefitted from the company’s development. The amount of money paid by the company to our government has been nothing compared to what American oil companies pay. During half a century of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s life, Iran’s share has been only $35,000,000, however the net profit for the company has been 60 times of the above sum. In order to make sure that the company is not driven to pay more royalties, the company has always interfered with the internal political affairs of Iran. Also the British stock owners, though many of them are amongst famous diplomats of our time, do not realize the misfortune of Iranians (I have to mention, however, that while the Iranian government had signed an agreement with one of the English companies not English government, but the British government had taken the charge of the company.) They are merely influenced by the expansion of the dividends and wealth of the company. Furthermore, the company had held down the payroll of her employees. Most of these employees were paid forty or fifty times the above wages in the oil territory. I have seen poverty-stricken people struggling long hours daily in the hot sun in order to obtain some bread and cheese for their daily survival. I have seen their children sick with malaria and blind with trachoma. Next to these Iranian employees you see the British employees of the company, who all enjoy the comforts afforded by air-conditioned buildings earning $50.00 or more per day. This is all to the fact that due the company has politically dominated any government which [we] have had in Iran during the last hundred years, as testified by many authorities such as the Royal Institute of International Affairs in its recent publication, “The Middle East”.

Many times members of the Iranian government were introduced in the Cabinet only in order to defend the interests of the company. Fortunately, lately many eminent people of the U.S.A. who, as a result of first hand information are becoming authorities on the Middle Eastern situation, have urged the necessity of prompt and immediate support of the present national campaign for the implementation of the Oil Nationalization Law.

It is unfortunate to see that, while the Iranian Government is struggling to earn the facilities for improving the life of its people, it is charged unfairly by the American Press as being fanatic and even communistic. Any one familiar with the Middle Eastern affairs would realize that the present crisis was not born over night. For many, many years the Iranian people have looked forward to the day that they could open the oil fields to the whole world and show the injustices under which they have long suffered. A great danger in Iran is the poverty and starvation of the people which is a direct result of British exploitation. Contrary to what has been laid before the public by the American Press, the royalties of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company are only a fraction of our national income. Even so, Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s royalties have a number of strings attached. Taxation in England, the rate of exchange of the sterling in Iranian currency, each has decreased considerably the nominal amount.

It is wrong to believe that the Iranian government is refusing to accept the large royalties of the company, and therefore the government is further impoverishing the nation. We are getting practically nothing out of the company. The company, realizing this matter, has lately proposed larger payments. Unfortunately, the company is years late visualizing our problem; thus, the blame for the present international tension should not be put on Iranian people or government. This is the natural reaction people to the Iranian the unfairness of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in the past, and I am very sure that the present situation would not have happened if the company would have been fairer to us.

In conclusion I would like to emphasize upon the fact that the peace and security of the whole Middle East in general and Iran in particular, rests solely upon the implementation of national aspirations that have been suppressed for the last century. It remains for the powers involved to help make stability and order take the place of insecurity and disturbances by abandoning their past policies of exploitation instead and pay interest and some concern to the welfare of the small nations.