We give you Iran’s Premier Mohammed Mossadegh, who as this is written was scheduled for an appearance in the United Nations Security Council Chamber—a frail old man, with a high-domed head, a long hooked nose, a man partly paralyzed and who walks with a cane. [No paralysis]

Like most Iranians, the visiting Premier is said to be highly emotional, and he often faints at the end of an impassioned speech.

He weeps freely, “but always in a dignified way,” according to one who knows him well. Yet it would be the worst possible mistake for Americans to write off Mossadegh as a clown or a fool. With all his emotionalism, he is a wily politician who knows all the tricks of the trade. Although he is rich landowner, educated in France and Switzerland, cultivated to the tips of his aristocratic fingers, he believes himself to be a friend of the people, and he shows it by living a simple life.

While not as extraordinary as the incredible late Mahatma Ghandi, the visiting Iranian politician has just succeeded in winning, in Middle Eastern eyes, an astounding victory, He has managed to expel the British from a billion dollar enterprise which they had built up during the past fifty years.

He has done it without provoking the British to use force, and without force to compel the departure of the last 330 British technicians from the giant refinery at Abadan.

His victory may turn out to be as hollow as that of the man who killed the goose who laid the golden eggs. But whatever the outcome of his visit, our visiting fireman has become a force in the Middle East.