July 18, 1952

New Iranian Chief Political Veteran

By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Ahmad Ghavam es Sultaneh, new Iranian Premier, has been Premier four times previously and each of his terms was marked by bitter disputes over domestic or foreign policies. The 77-year-old statesman, born of landed gentry, has been imprisoned on at least one occasion and forced into exile on another.

His most recent Premiership ended in December, 1947, shortly after the Iranian Majlis (Lower House of Parliament) turned down an oil agreement Ghavam had negotiated with the Soviet Union, Iran's northern neighbor.

When he became Premier for the fourth time in January, 1946, the United Nations had received a complaint from Iran against Soviet "interference" in the northern Iranian province of Azerbaijan. Soviet troops had occupied the area after World War II and later established an autonomous government there.

Ghavam let stand the complaint in the United Nations, but resolved to negotiate the dispute directly with Moscow. Under what he later described as "pressure" from the Soviet Union, he negotiated an agreement giving the Soviet Union 51 per cent of the stock in a Soviet-Iranian Oil Company to develop resources in the province. The Majlis overwhelmingly vetoed the project and shortly after refused the Premier a vote of confidence.

Following his resignation in 1947 there were reports of his arrest--later denied--and of an investigation of his alleged "interference with the course of justice." He went to France for medical treatment but returned in May, 1948, to be cleared of the charges of misconduct in office and to resume an active role in politics. He served recently as Speaker of the Majlis.

Ghavam first entered government service in 1909 as Minister of Justice. From 1918 to 1921 he was Governor of Khorassan, a northeastern province, but was jailed following a coup in the latter year. After still another upheaval he was not only released from jail, where he had been for 100 days, but became Premier.

He was nominal head of the Government--Riza Khan, War Minister, was the real power--from June, 1921, to January, 1922, and from June, 1922, to February, 1923. He was banished from the country in 1923 on a charge of plotting against the life of the War Minister and was not permitted to return until 1929.

Ghavam again became Premier in June, 1942, and had to face a series of food riots, said to have been inspired by pro-Axis elements. The internal strife nearly cost him his life and led to his resignation in February, 1943.