Premier Mohammed Mossadegh would display greater sincerity and courage but less political acumen if he deferred the Iran elections to the more distant future. He has scheduled them for next week, a shrewd bit of timing that makes certain a vindication of his policies at the polls.

Premier Mossadegh returns empty-handed from his long stay in the United States and is given a hero’s welcome. Notwithstanding his country’s deepening economic crisis, he has been able to capitalize upon the current fever of nationalism and to present himself in the popular role as his country’s savior from British imperialism.

As matters stand he has nothing to offer his impoverished countrymen but more stringent austerity and the grim prospect of eventual economic disaster.

Wisely, under the rather frightening circumstances, Premier Mossadegh will hold his election without delay, before his country begins to reap the whirlwind of its government’s futility and folly.