IRAQI PRIME MINISTER

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28158, 22 December 1956, Page 4

IRAQI PRIME MINISTER

“Firm Friend Of Britain” (Special Correspondent N.Z P.A.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 20. Nuri es Said, the Prime Minister of Iraq, who recently attacked Colonel Nasser in an important speech, has been a friend of Britain since the days when he served with Lawrence of Arabia.

Now in his seventieth year, he is an Arab of Mesopotamia, and was born a subject of the Ottoman Sultan of the time. He became an officer in the Turkish Army, and served with it in the 1914 war until he joined Lawrence. When the Arab lands of the former Ottoman Empire became mandated to the Powers. Nuri es Said was in Iraq’s ruling oligarchy, and was sent more than once to London as a diplomatic envoy.

He always believed that the Arab lands must each have a strong protecting Power, and his policy has always been that in the case of Iraq that Power must be Britain. His life has several times been in danger from his political enemies. A British warship once rescued him in Basra, and another time he escaped in a mailbag in a trans-desert mail truck travelling from Bagdad to Damascus. During the Raschid Ali rebellion of May, 1941, he escaped to the British in the American Minister’s car, lying on the floor covered by a rug. The ‘‘Yorkshire Post” says: “At every political crisis in his life, Nuri es Said has stood by the British. Today he again faces a crisis. Will the Bagdad Pact stand or will it be submerged? ‘‘Nuri stands firmly for the pact and for a friendly British connexion with Iraq and Turkey. “Against him are those Arabs who for varying reasons think that in supporting Britain they will be backing a loser.

“Nuri knows that this crisis of 195657 is vital. Will Iraq stand fast and faithful to her Western allies, or will she, like Egypt and Syria, yield to Communist pressure and let the Russians in? Everything may depend on Nuri.”