Test Case

While Iran and the world waited, the deadline came & went. The Russians were still there.

The Anglo-Soviet-Iranian Treaty of Jan. 29, 1942 (to whose aims the U.S. later gave its blessing) pledged Britain and Russia to quit the country by March 2, 1946. When Britain and the U.S. last year sought to predate the deadline, Russian Foreign Commissar Viacheslav Molotov acidly observed: "The Soviet Government is. guided strictly by the time limit established in the" 1942 treaty."

Two of the Big Three met the deadline. The last G.I. quit by Jan. 1, the last Tommy before midnight on March 1. But Russia had let down deeper roots--in the Communist-controlled "autonomous" province of Azerbaijan. If the Red Army withdrew from the north, Azerbaijan would forthwith lose its autonomous props. Nor had the Kremlin had enough time to negotiate a new treaty with Iranian Premier Ahmad Gavam Saltaneh, who had been in Moscow since Feb. 19.

Part In, Part Out. A day before the deadline, Moscow Radio baldly broadcast that Premier Gavam had been "notified" of the Soviet decision to begin withdrawing its troops on March 2 from districts "where the situation is relatively more quiet" in eastern Iran. In other areas the Red Army would stay "until the situation has been elucidated."

In Moscow, the "elucidation" proceeded. Susceptible Premier Gavam might be willing, but his parliamentary majority (52-to-51) was too weak for far-reaching concessions. Any plan to abrogate Iranian sovereignty over Azerbaijan would almost certainly be repudiated by a hostile House. In vain Prince Firouz, Director of Propaganda, soothingly explained the Soviet presence in troubled areas as a "friendly gesture." Angry deputies called it "an act of aggression," "a threat of another world war."

If Moscow listened to any protest at call, it would not be to the feeble whisper of its southern neighbor. To Moscow went a note from London requesting an explanation. How much farther Britain would or could go depended on how much tougher the U.S. would be in its new foreign policy (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS).

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