Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, SEPT 25, 1929. IRAQ.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 254, 25 September 1929, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. WEDNESDAY, SEPT 25, 1929. IRAQ.

The MacDonald Government appears in great haste to get rid of its responsibility, or rather Britain’s responsibility, in regard to Iraq, which is applying for admission to the League of Nations. While quite prepared to support that application at the proper time, the Baldwin Government, the immediate predecessors of the Labour Administration, held strongly to the opinion that it was necessary for the safety of King Faisal’s territory that Britain should continue to exercise the mandatory powers with which it had been entrusted by the Allies when Turkey, under the Treaty of Lausanne, ratified on August 6th, 1923, renounced her sovereignty over Mesopotamia, and the British Government took over the administration. A provisional Arab Government had been set up by the British High Commissioner in November, 1920, following the liberation of the country from Turkish rule, and, nine months later, the Emir Faisal was elected King- of Iraq, his enthronement taking place a year later. Under a treaty entered into between Great Britain and Iraq, the former undertook to secure the admission of the latter to the League of Nations, with the understanding that, as soon as that was accomplished, the responsibilities of Great Britain, as the mandatory Power, would be at an end. As far back as 1915 the Liberal Government, then in office, pledged Great Britain to set up an Arab Government in Mesopotamia, since known as Iraq, and to support that Government until it was strong enough to stand by itself. The Arabs in turn undertook to fight for the Allies against Turkey, which had entered the war on the side of the Central Powers. So well did they carry out that undertaking- that, despite the reverse sustained by Major-General Townsend’s army in the earlier stages, the Turks were finally defeated through their help, and thus the Arabs carried out their share of the agreement. Each successive British Government since 1915—Liberal, Coalition, Conservative and Socialist—has honoured the pledge given by the Liberal Government during the war, and Great Britain’s obligations, as the mandatory and protecting Power, were to cease only when Iraq had become a selfsupporting State; when the boundary had been fixed between Iraq and Turkey, and when the League of' Nations accepted Iraq as a member. The League of

Nations had been engaged in trying- to settle the boundary question, but the Turks wanted and still want the province of Mosul, the possession of which is necessary to Iraq, if she is to have a boundary providing a natural defence, and leaving her free from the constant fear of Turkish aggression in the development of her trade, commerce and agriculture. The Mosul frontier can be guarded with a very small force, as it presents a barrier of a difficult mountainous character, but, if Turkey had her way, the frontier she would set up, running through comparatively level country, could only be guarded effectually by quite a large armed force. Under the 1922 treaty, Great Britain was to exercise mandatory powers over Iraq for 20 years; but, by a protocol signed on April 30, 1923, the duration of the treaty was cut down to four years. By a further treaty, signed at Baghdad on January 13, 1926, the treaty of 1923 was extended to remain in force for a period of 25 years from December 16, 1925, unless before ther expiration of that time Iraq had been admitted as a member of the League of Nations. The reason for this extension of the mandatory jurisdiction of Great Britain was that, in 1924, the Turks had begun to press claims to the entire vilayet of Mosul, in spite of the fact that the League of Nations Council, sitting at Brussels that year, had fixed the northern boundary of Mosul as the Iraq frontier. Great Britain attempted to treat with Turkey on the matter but failed to effect an agreement, and the frontier question was referred back to the League, which set up a commission to investigate the position, the result being that the Mosul frontier, known as “the Brussels line” was allowed to stand, and Turkey accepted that decision in 1926. THE BRITISH MANDATORY SPHERE. The total area of the districts covered in the British mandatory sphere is about 150,UUU square miles, the distance from Basra in the south to Mosul in the north being approximately 500 miles. The sphere comprises the former Turkish vilayets of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra, and, under the fostering care of Great Britain, the country has developed amazingly. A Constituent Assembly met at Baghdad and passed an electoral law for the election of a Chamber of Deputies, and instituted a constitutional monarchy, hereditary to tlie family of King Faisal, with a Senate of 20 members nominated by the King, and a Chamber of Deputies of 88 members, elected on manhood suffrage. Since the British occupation, many notable improvements have been effected, and many thousands of acres have been made available for agricultural purposes by means of irrigation. The revenue has more than met the expenditure, the total of the latter in 1926-27 being £4,025,400 and the revenue amounting to £4,252,500. In Mosul the British hold valuable oil concessions, and have established great oil refineries in the south-east. There are about 700 miles of railway open, and a motor service has been established between Baghdad and Damascus, and an air-mail service between Baghdad and Cairo. A large number of secondary schools and a large university at Baghdad have been established in the country. According to the Iraq Minister in London (General Jafar Pasha) all sections of Iraq’s population want “the mandate replaced by a treaty of friendship leaving Iraq free to develop her own resources, particularly her own defence.” The British Government has “offered to recommend Iraq’s entrance • into the Leagufe of Nations in 1932,” but many things may happen in the meantime if Iraq is left to her own resources without the powerful protection Great Britain is able to afford her.