226. Editorial Note
In a letter to Sir James Bowker of the British Foreign Office, June 26, 1953, Sir Roger Makins, British Ambassador to the United States, described his conversation with Ambassador Henderson on June 25 in Washington. Henderson said that he had concluded that one could not deal with Mosadeq and added that only the emergency powers accorded Mossadeq after the July 1952 political crisis had enabled him to survive. Makins and Henderson then discussed alternatives to Mosadeq. This section of Makins’ letter reads as follows:
[Page 609]“An alternative solution might be found through the Amini brothers who, he said, were growing rapidly in authority and ambition. He personally did not trust the brother who was Minister of Court. The brothers were trying to work in both with the Shah and Mussadeq. They were in touch through Qashquais [sic] with Kazemi. Henderson thought they would not hesitate to doublecross both the Shah and Mussadeq.
“Asked what the Aminis might do, Henderson tentatively suggested that they might get rid of the present Shah and put in his place the young son of the Shah’s third brother who, I understand, is the only member of the family with Kajar blood in him. They would then set up a regency and hope to enjoy power for many years until the boy grew up, when they could decide what to do with him. Henderson repeated that he did not like this solution very much owing to his distrust of the Amini. While the brothers were at present pretending to be on the Western side, he thought the family were just as likely to doublecross us as the Shah and Mussadeq.” The full text of this letter is in the British National Archives, Files of the Ministry of Fuel and Power, POWE 33/2087.