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Forgotten Men. This spring Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. operators began to report they were unable to buy vegetables for their staffs. Other meats not available, chicken reached price levels reminiscent of early oil-rush days. Eggs were soon unobtainable. No Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. employe suffers unduly from this lack of foodstuffs, for the rich concern, having profited from cash sales of oil to warring Italy three years ago, can import vast quantities of canned foods.
But all through southwestern Iran what had been for years a chronic famine has now deepened into acute starvation. Emaciated Iranian citizens can be seen sitting around in streets and doorways, their bones almost sticking through their skins, their eyes seeming to pop out of their heads, lacking the energy even to brush away the swarms of flies covering their bodies. Scores of beggars greet incoming travelers. Still greatly flourishing is the opium poppy, which withstands drought, is immune from locust attacks. Despite the bustling, superficial prosperity of Teheran, all was not well last week in the Empire of the Shah-in-Shah.
That little opportunity exists for outward manifestations of unrest was evident from the fact that His Imperial Majesty keeps a tight rein on the army, maintains a force of 20,000 of his best-clothed, best-fed, best-paid soldiers in Teheran, This week the stern dictator's men were making the rounds of households along the route of the contemplated state drive of His Imperial Majesty, warning citizens to display flags, hang out banners.
When an American automobile agent in Teheran recently suggested to the King of Kings that he might be interested in a bullet-proof car such as was formerly supplied to Al Capone & Company, the sensitive monarch resented the none-too-subtle comparison. A multilingual secretary replied briefly and pointedly: "His Imperial Majesty, beloved of his people, certain of his subjects' affection, has no conceivable need for such a conveyance."