MOSCOW TO BAGHDAD

DALLIN, DAVID J.

MOSCOW TO BAGHDAD Iran—Cockpit of the New Oil Diplomacy By David J. Dallin THE Soviet Drang nee* SiUen today succeeds the German Drang nach Osten, and Moscow toBaghdad followa the Kaiser's...

...dwili J DALLIN is the author of two widelyhailed studies on Russian foreign policy publisheo by y ale University Press...
...Were not the armies needed elsewhere in the Spring months of 1941 ? In 1944, in the heyday of military successes, all the old Alee in the Soviet Foreign Office are brought to light and placed on Stalin's desk...
...Policy is being made in oil terms, and the oil smell is the smell of diplomacy...
...Northern Iran by Russian troops, and the ports, railroads and highways of Iran were utilized for the delivery of war material to Russia...
...Since the war in Kuro|>e is Hearing its end, the deadline in Iran will probably fall in the year i94fi Hence the great activity of the Soviet Government The international language of the Middle East is the language of oil...
...a solution which would be acceptable both to Britain and Russia...
...L The paragraphs below are reprinted from 7'ime magazine, which in its November Ulth issue carried a profile of General Joe Stilwell...
...The political implications play a major role...
...Among the youths, once burning with zeal for the revolution, there wa/j disillusionment...
...Then he disappeared . . . If the rift in U. S.-Chinese relations were not quickly repaired, both China and the U. S. would be the losers...
...But a new glimpse of Yenan was revealed in four articles entitled Wild Artichoke...
...The Wild Artichoke...
...In principle and ao far as it is possible, requests for concessions from remote countries hsve preference., before the neighboring British snd Russians, witfi their armies ever ready to invade and to defend their economical rights...
...tlle shoit picture below of life inside Communist China was written by Wang Shihwei, for many years a leading member of the Chinese Communist Party...
...When asked whether they have eaten enough they are required to reply with a prescribed model phrases 'We are well-fed!'" Said Wang: "Such conditions cause uneasiness...
...They have never reported Yenan's rigorous press censoihip (much stricter than Chungking's), its iron party discipline, "traitors' fconcentration] camps," secret police, other totalitarian features...
...Mauriciua...
...MOSCOW TO BAGHDAD Iran—Cockpit of the New Oil Diplomacy By David J. Dallin THE Soviet Drang nee* SiUen today succeeds the German Drang nach Osten, and Moscow toBaghdad followa the Kaiser's policy of Bei lin-toujghdad...
...Inside Communist ChinaA Picture of the Dictatorship in Yenan...
...The thunder coming over the Iranian gov¦ i nmi nt from the Soviet sky was addressed not so much against the Iranians, as against the allies, especially the Americans...
...i^CCORDING to the Russian-British-Iranian treaty of January, 1942, the occupying armies have to leave the territory of Iran not later than six months after the end of the war The Teheran resolution of the three allied leaders (December, 1943) again emphasized the obligation to restore Iran's independence when the war will be over, the guarantee of the United States being added to the former agreements...
...Comedy and tragedy st the same time...
...And unlike Chungking, a Communist China (with its 450 million people) would turn to Russia (with its 200 million people) rather than to the U. S. (with its 130 million) as an internalionsl collaborator...
...For if Chiang Kai-shek were compelled to collaborate with Yenan on Yenan's terms, or if he were forced to lift his military blockade of the Chinese Communist area, a Communist China might soon replace Chungking...
...Standard Oil of California and Texas Co...
...He swings a magic wand-and twenty-five thousand "workers and peasants" demonstrate in the streets of Tavriz, since their greatest need is "give an oil concession to Russia...
...Their importance cannot be exaggerated, and international conflicts in these regions, between the Black Sea and India, arc frought with the greatest implications...
...Or will it practically form a Soviet zone...
...Alter his criticism of the Communist regime he disappeared...
...On the Soviet side great activity was developed at that time, both in the diplomatic and military field, armies were prepared on the Iranian border, and Russian military gsmea took place near Tashkent...
...Iran is the Soviet road to the great "Arabistan"—to the lands of Islam, of the poor and oppressed peoples living along the eastern and the southern shores of the Mediterranean...
...A third hook, from the same publisher, will appear soon under the title The Ileal Soviet Kiissia...
...Shortly after writing Wild Artichoke, Wang Shih-wei was expelled from the Anti-Japanese Writers League, was branded as Trotskyite, charged with undermining the Communist Party...
...Other touring U. S. correspondents have lauded Yenan's agrarian reforms, labor unions, well-ted troops, efficient guerrilla organization...
...In these poor and weak nations the Love for the Remote has been substituted for the Love Thy Neighbor, and, indeed, have they not had sufficient grounds for this deviation from the Old Testament...
...Moscow, too, has abandoned its previous jargon—arise, ye oppressed, against the conquerors' —and has adopted the international habits...
...Young students are given two meals of rice gruel * day...
...What kind of a government was the Communist Government of Yenan, which (he White House and General Stilwell had insisted thai Generalissimo Chiang must cooperate with...
...Southern Iran was then occupied by the British...
...a British-Russian agreement, the first step in the great war alliance, ended a long series of conflicts...
...in fact, they ignored the people's welfare, neglectedflsfjtl the sick 'who cannot obtain a mouthful of soup.' The people voiced their dissatisfaction in 'hushed murmurs in th* dark iff" night.' There were 'three classes of uniform and five classes of food...
...It seems that this plan has failed, and the allies are divided in Middle Asia, with Britain at the American side...
...In Iran, on the contrary, American Interests so far have be n overshadowed by the British oil companies...
...Twenty years later Hitlers government again played with the idea of a redivision of Iran—it was in May, 1941—snd, in order to lull Moscow's suspiciousness, conducted negotiations with the Soviet Government conceding almost the whole of Iran to the Soviet zone...
...The government of It^e United Slates tried to find a solution of the oil problems a few months ago...
...displays great activity...
...But American activity is increasing rapidly, both economically and politically, and Moscow suspects that American influence was decisive in the rejection of the Soviet offer...
...It demands merely oil concessions in Northern Iran, from the Iranian government...
...Its oil concessions are situated mostly in SaudiArabia, where the American-Arabian Oil Co...
...they are guided by motives of different kinds...
...The author was the Chinese translator of Eugene O'Neill, a scholar of the Yenan Central Research Institute, for 16 years a member of the Communist Party...
...Wrote Wang of life in Yenan: "Party bosses showed neither 'love nor warmth' lor the rank & file...
...For the U. S. it might be catastrophic...
...4 # tlils it why the United States occupies, for the moment at least, a better posit1 on in Iran than both its allies...
...Will this liaiiian zone actually remain in Iran's jurisdiction...
...I awsit comments...
...Chinese Communists and their sympathizers— notably Edgar Snow (Red Star Over China, The Rattle far Anju) and Agnes Smedley, daughter of a U. S. coal miner and author of China's Red Ar'tuy Marches and Battle Hymn of China, were eloquent about Yenan...
...simultaneously, Iran is Russia's road to India...
...For China, the loss might be great...
...All vestige of German influence in the Middle Eaat waa eradicated in 1941-42, when the mighty Shah of Iran, Hitler's admirer, waa deported to St...
...As for those who advance the fa"' that distinction of rank exists in the Soviet Union as a legitimate reason for our present practice, well, excuse my bluntness, but I would advise those 'high priests' to shut their mouths...
...All the "spheres of influence" which have ever existed in Russian history—the Balkans, Middle East, Far East—are again on the agenda...
...The proposed monetary royalties, very important in themselves, are not always decisive...
...The concessions, of course, will mean, by implication, the control of huge territories, the import of a Soviet police force "to defend the enterprises," and of certain organs of the NKV1) into Iran...
...Is it then surprising that the day when the government of Moscow entered the road of mighty expansions, it started to display great activity not only in Central Europe but also in the East* However, the Soviet drive in the Middle East encounters, unlike in the Balkans, not the German satellites, but its allies—Britain and America...
...The rich oil land between the Caspian and tb* Red Seas is a peculiar part of the world—povertystricken above, yet with enormous riches beneath the surface, it is the traditional region of "spheres of influence" and of British oil-diplomacy Northern Iran waa officially acknowledged by the British aa a Russian "sphere of influence" in 1907, vttr...
...He again swings his magic wand, and "the press in Iran—as ''great and independent" as in Lublin Poland—resentfully reacts to the decisions of its government...
...long in coming...
...The thunder indicates a great storm...
...The government of Iran, obviously skeptical, rejected the Soviet request after prolonged negotiations All the governments in the Middle East have a long experience with the granting and rejection of concessions...
...Wild Artichoke, recently smuggled out of Communist China, was written for a campaign of Communist self-criticism, initiated by the head of the Chinese Communist Government, Mao Tsc-tung...
...Further developments in this part of the world must be watched with the greatest attention...
...They were not...
...Written by Wang Shih-wei, the articles appeared in Yenan's Emancipation Daily...
...Vice-Commissar Sergei Kavtaradze arrives in Teheran and In the twinkling of an eye the government Is overthrown...
...the new program often reaches even beyond the frontiers of the old spheres...
...Tea years later the Russian revolution denounced all unequal treaties with the neighbor lands—hands off from Persia!—and Iran'a independence was restored...

Vol. 27 • November 1944 • No. 47


 
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