IRAQ ASSYRIANS

Evening Star, Issue 22261, 12 February 1936, Page 8

IRAQ ASSYRIANS

INTERNATIONAL PLAN FOR SETTLEMENT LARGE FUND NECESSARY (British Official Wireless.) Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright RUGBY, February 11. (Received February 12, at noon.) A plan for settling Assyrians in the Ghab district in Syria was the subject of debate in the House of Lords, and was initiated by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He pointed out that when contributions already promised, including £250,000 which the British Government had offered, had been added together a balance of £IBO.OOO remained to be found. The Primate stated that he was ready to inaugurate a public appeal for this money, and had already secured a strong committee to give effect to it if the Government approved. Lord Stanhope said although the Government felt it had no actual liability in regard to the settlement of Assyrians, it had decided to make an offer of £250,000 to the League on condition that Iraq made an equal contribution, and Iraq had agreed. The only hope to meet the gap and clear up the situation would be a substantial response to the appeal the Archbishop proposed to make to private charity. The Government would help the appeal, and hoped it would be a great success. The scheme for the settlement of Assyrians requires preliminary work of reclamation and development in a plain known as the Ghab, including extensive drainage and irrigation at a cost of about £827,000, of which the French mandatory authorities are finding about £380,000. The alluvial soil of the valley of the Orontes is believed to be of great potential richness. It is anticipated that the Assyrians will be able to begin to cultivate their permanent lands in 1940. The net cost of the settlement operation itself as distinct from the preliminary reclamation and development was estimated in the original plan submitted to the League of Nations last September at about £320,000. This covered provision for administration, transport of Assyrians from Iraq, food supplies, motor vehicles and tractors, agricultural implements and seed, livestock, construction of houses, schools, and churches, and sanitary services and supplies. The most important of these credits is for food —about £123,000 —during the period before the settlors are able to grow sufficient for tlieir own needs. As the result of a resolution of the League Council an autonomous board of trustees for Assyrian settlement has been established at Beirut. Its task is to collaborate with the French mandatory authorities in adfninistration of the actual settlement operation as distinct from the reclamation works on the Ghab Plain, execution of which is being left to the mandatory authorities, and to assume local financial responsibility within the limits of its regular Budgets as approved by the League of Nations. The French mandatory authorities propose eventually ‘to naturalise the Assyrians eu bloc, after which they will be in the same position and enjoy the same rights as other religious minorities in the States covered by the mandate for Syria.