The Evening Star MONDAY, APRIL 21, 1941. EVENTS IN IRAQ.

Evening Star, Issue 23865, 21 April 1941, Page 6

The Evening Star MONDAY, APRIL 21, 1941. EVENTS IN IRAQ.

The nearest approach to a declaration of policy yet made by the new Government of Iraq came when British Imperial forces arrived at Basra in order to open up lines of communication through the country and also, no doubt, to keep a watchful eye on the oil wells. It is officially stated that the presence of theso troops accords with the British treaty of alliance between Britain and Iraq. Such information, together with the statement that the new Iraqi Administration was represented in the warm and friendly welcome given to the incoming British, tends to discount possible suspicions that this important corner of the Middle East was coming under foreign domination. The recent coup d’etat, which saw officers of the Iraqi array* overturn the Government and force the Regent to flee from Bagdad. was unaccompanied by an adequate explanation, and a French report from Beirut (still unconfirmed) that a British base near Bagdad had been seized by Iraqi troops must have given rise to serious misgivings, particularly in. association with the knowledge that German agents are likely enough to have been busy trying to make trouble for the British in those parts. The reasons for concern over the position in Iraq were obvious. Its territory is a vital link in the British Imperial system of communications, Basra, at the head of the Persian Gulf, having become one of the world’s most useful airports. The oil production of Iraq, moreover, is the greatest under British influence dr control, and it is safe to assume that the pipeline from Kirkuk to Haifa, on the shore of Palestine, carries a large proportion of the fuel required for the ships of the Royal Navy operating in the Mediterranean. During the last war the object of the early British operations in Mesopotamia was to protect the Anglo-Persian oil installations, to occupy the greater’ part of the Basra area so as to secure possession of the districts immediately around the Persian Gulf, and to impress the Arabs and others in this region and in the territories intervening between the Ottoman Empire and India. The present landing at Basra has some similar features, especially in regard to protection for the oilfields. This time, however, the likelihood of hostilities seems to he remote. No doubt agents of the Axis Powers, masters in the art of espionage and subversion, are trying to work up feeling against Britain, possibly with a view to paving the way for actual penetration by tlicir troops at a later date. It is significant that Iraq is adjacent to Syria, where some German infiltratiTm has already’ taken place, and that not very far to the north-west lies Turkey, which, as time goes on, will be brought more strongly than ever under Nazi pressure. The landing of the British force at Basra may be a prelude to defensive strategy on a large scale, aimed not so much at protecting British interests frpm the Iraqis as to safeguard the future in the event of increased Axis infiltration. The last Government of Iraq approved of the Saadahad Pact, linking the country with Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan, and also the 1930 treaty with Great Britain under which Iraq recognised the common, interest which lay in the maintenance of British communications. This is a policy which, it is to be hoped, will officially bo sponsored by the new Administration, whatever the reasons for the change in the Cabinet personnel may have been.