Word: abadane
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Brisk Businessman Stokes made a final offer: a businesslike partnership, in which profits would be split fifty-fifty, but with British technicians left in charge of the Abadan refinery. Anglophobe Mossadeq agreed to a British boss for the British staff; he balked over Iranians taking orders from Britons. "But you can't run a show that way," cried Stokes. "You can only have one boss." Mossadeq rejected the argument with his favorite French phrase: "Tant pis" (tough luck...
What did the Iranians propose? Just three points for negotiations: 1) how much compensation did the British want to get out, lock, stock and oil barrels; 2) how much oil did the British propose to buy for their own needs; 3) under what terms would British technicians remain at Abadan...
...huge drain is due largely to higher prices of timber, tobacco and grain, much of which Britain must buy in the dollar area (the U.S., Canada, etc.). Another worry is the Iranian oil crisis. If Britain loses her oil from Abadan, she will have to spend some $350 million more a year buying oil from the dollar area (the U.S. and Venezuela) to make up the difference...
Speculation: 1) the cruisers were going to the Korean war; 2) they were being transferred to the Black Sea; 3) they were going to Abadan, Iran, to outglare the British cruiser there. Good guess: they were on a shakedown cruise to Murmansk...
Meanwhile, Anglo-Iranian announced it would close down the Abadan refinery this week. Official explanation: Abadan's storage tanks were overflowing and production had to stop. Actually, Britain was serving notice that while it would negotiate, it would stand for no more pushing around...