British Diplomatic Oil Crisis: Contemporary Anglo-Saxon Geopolitical Rivalries in the Persian Gulf: Drawing a Lesson? Or Sir Anthony Eden‘s Delusion of Grandeur.

CHAPTER THREE

THE FALL OF THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT
IN 1951

The Labour Government faced the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s nationalisation
crisis without much warning, for their information from Iran was scanty, and
largely dependent on the AIOC. The Foreign Office was in some disarray,
which a newly arrived Foreign Secretary, Herbert, Morrison. Morrison became
Foreign Secretary at roughly the same time that Dr. Musaddiq ascended to
power. When nationalisation of the AIOC was proclaimed on 2nd May 1951,
Musaddiq became one of the new Foreign Secretary’s foremost anxieties.
Morrison, who had moved from Home Secretary to Foreign Secretary to replace
Bevin, knew that the British public would be outraged by any display of
apparent weakness in the face of Iranian high-handedness. Morrison informed
the Cabinet that measures would be taken to stop the Anglo-Iranian Oil
Company’s customers from purchasing oil from the Iranian Government. Under
the instruction of the British Government, the AIOC would:

1. Refuse to allow its
   tankers to load oil at Abadan

2. Withdraw the services of all British technicians from Abadan and the
   oil fields.

3. Endeavor by legal
   processes to ensure that any other company loading
   oil at Abadan was unable to dispose of it. 1

In May 1951, the British tried
‘to convince Washington to cancel, delay or
curtail financial aid to Iran’.2

1. 1. PRO, London, T236/3656,
   Treasury Records, Cabinet, Persian
   Oil, Economic Sanction against Persia, Secret, 8th May, 1951, p.1.

2. 2. M.A. HEISS,
   The United States, Great Britain, and Iranian Oil, 1950-,
   Ph.D. Thesis, The Ohio State University, 1991, p.96.

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