Russian Answer

As the mortar binding the West together set with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS) and the hopeful anniversary of Marshall aid in Europe (see below), Russia cast about for a suitably truculent counter move.

Persia, from which the U.N. had forced Russia to withdraw her troops in 1947, seemed to be selected as the main area of Soviet pressure. This week from Teheran came reports that Soviet tanks and armored cars had rolled over the border into Azerbaijan and opened fire on a Persian outpost at Qanli Boulaq near the Caspian Sea. Two Persians were killed. The border incident was the most serious of six such attacks on Persia in the past few months.

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