The Old Game

The old Middle East game of baiting the British, a pastime which any number may play, continued unabated. First, Iran's Foreign Office fired off an angry note warning the British embassy to cease "open interference" in Iran's affairs or suffer consequences. The British in a huffy reply refused to receive Iran's note; the Iranians in turn refused to receive the British message refusing the Iranian note. Upshot: Premier Mossadegh ordered Great Britain to shut her nine Iranian consulates within nine days.

In Egypt, trigger-happy Egyptian irregulars went after British military trains and the British military went after the irregulars. After one day's sporadic firing, the score was: one British military train shot up; three British casualties; 46 Egyptian guerrillas killed, wounded or captured.

Yet there were hopeful signs. Three separate, self-appointed mediators--Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the U.S.--:kept trying to mediate the Britain-Egypt quarrel. Best bet to date was a tentative suggestion from Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden to his U.S. opposite number, Dean Acheson: Britain might provisionally recognize. Egypt's Farouk as King of the disputed Sudan in return for continued British "protection" of the Suez and full Egyptian participation in the Middle East command.

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