ROYAL AIR FORCE

Evening Star, Issue 21611, 5 January 1934, Page 8

ROYAL AIR FORCE

DEFENDER OF IRAQ BRITISH AID FOR KINGDOM ITS PLAGE IN POLITICS Iraq has completed its first year of independence. On October 3, 1932, Iraq took its seat at the Assembly as a full-fledged member of the League of Nations (says the ‘ Christian Science Monitor’). The year has been one of change. Chief among the year’s developments is the fact that King Feisal has been succeeded by. his son, King Ghazi, a young monarch whose training includes some .years at the great English school, Harrow, and a period with the Bedouin nomads, . , " The disappearance of' the mandate left the Arabs,,in full executive control of the country. Though this sounds and is, of course,' fundamental, the transformation so, far has made little practical difference. The country Still has many British officials in high offices; it still depends on Great Britain for, .its defence; . perhaps King Ghazi even depends on -British support for his throne. Within the past year or- two Kurdish insurgents have twice been reduced by the help of . the British Air Force, and could scarcely have been reduced, without it.

Under the terms of the Anglo-Iraqi treaty of 1930, Great Britain has pledged itself to help' defend the frontiers of Iraq against external aggression, but not to help preserve internal order. Many persons, however, doubt whether the British could afford to allow the country to remain for long in a disturbed condition if internal order did become upset. For Iraq, like Palestine, is on the direct line of Great Britain’s air route from the Mediterranean to India and the Par East.

ißy . letting the Iraq mandate go Great Britain expects to_ be safeguarded for the ’ future against hostile Iraq nationalism. But, though Iraq has thus ' somewhat surprisingly achieved independence, it is to-day far too weak to stand, alone without British help. If, the Persians .wished 'to seize Basra; if the Wahhabis under King Ibn Baud wished-to repeat their exploit of a century ago and loot the hated wealth of the Shia holy cities of Kerbela arid Nejef; if the Turks were minded to recover Mosul and the oilfields, the Iraqis themselves (as most of them frankly admit) could not prevent them.; CONCENTRATION OF AIRCRAFT. Consequently both countries find advantage in the, presence of British’ aeroplanes as an integral part of Iraq’s ultimate line of defence. Under the treaty ■of 1930 the Royal Air Force remains just as before on the right bank of the Euphrates. Big concentrations of British depots and bombing squadrons will be stationed roughly fifty miles west of Bagdad, and at Basra the present flyingboat and bomber base will remain as a link with the Arabian coast and with the British naval division operating in the Persian Gulf. . Whatever the future may hold in store for "Bagdad and the north, there seems no reason to imagine that the British air and marine position near Basra will be modifield for many years to come. For if Palestine is. one springer of the British arch from the Mediterranean to India, Basra and the Persian Gulf is the other. Moreover, British influence is now consolidated down the western side of the Persian Gulf. For generations the gulf sloops have kept order on the pearling banks and dispensed justice to slaves and pirates alike. For generations the sheikhs of the “ key ” principalities of Kuwait, Bahrain, the Trucial Coast, and Muscat have been under British protection and supervision. I Within the last year or two special arrangements have been made with the sheikhs of the Trucial Coast (northern Oman) with the result that British air communications between Basra and India are flanked by friendly Arab potentates, until the sea jump from Sharjah to Qwadar in Baluchistan sees the fliers in British India. The early • extension of . this air route to Malaya and Australia will but increase the national importance of the Pales-tine-Basra-Oman bridge. The , importance 'Great. Britain attaches to Iraq as a stepping stone to India _is seen on land as well as in the air. Until recently the transdesert communications from Iraq to the Mediterranean were concentrated upon the Bagdad-Damascus route. THE OILFIELDS. Within the past year or so the British Government has been trying to develop the Bagdad-Amman-Jerusalem route, thus insuring that the western _ end _is under British conti’ol in Palestine, instead of under French control in Syria. For there is no early likelihood that the Palestine mandate will come to an end owing to the uncertainty over the position as between Arab and Jew. Oil also swims into the picture. The Iraq oilfields are going ahead. The Anglo-Persian Company, in which the British Government is a major shareholder, has a 23| per cent, holding in the Iraq Petroleum Company, and appears to he in complete control of the administration on the spot. By 1935 the pipe line from Northern Iraq to the Mediterranean will be completed, with one terminus on the Syrian and another on the Palestine coast. This latter terminus is to be at Haifa, which within ten years is bound to become one of the great ports of the Mediterranean.

There has for some considerable time been talk of a Haifa-Bagdad. railway. Britain wants_ it and Iraq would welcome it, but it-is not clear where the money could he raised except from British sources. The projected railway would follow the pipe line, branching south to Bagdad on reaching the Euphrates. Meanwhile it is to be noted that a great transdesert telephone line is being constructed alongside the pipe line. A ROAD NEEDED. There seems little reason why a metalled road should not also be built along the route. At present the rains turn whole sections of the .desert into sticky mud in. which cars and lorries are frequently bogged. But even in dry weather a metalled road would ensure great economies in tyres, springs, and petrol—not to mention the comfort of passengers. France, from its position in Syria, finds plenty to criticise in these developments of British policy. As long ago as 1916, the British and French were engaged in parcelling out the Arab countries. But many of the developments that have since comp about were in no way contemplated by the French, even up to the signing of the treaties.

The termination of the Iraq mandate moreover caused some trouble for the French in Syria. The Syrians con-

sider themselves a more advanced people than the Iraqis, and they do not understand why they should not be regarded as equally ready for. independence. ’lt is thought by some that before long France will be willing to give up the Syrian mandate on condition that it retains full control of the coast.