MASSACRE IN IRAQ

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 18 August 1933, Page 5

MASSACRE IN IRAQ

FATE OF ASSYRIANS. ANXIETY AT LONDON. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) LONDON, Aug. 17. Air. Ramsay AlacDonald, Prime Alinister, will reach London early tomorrow morning by rail and will consult departmental heads and deal with certain State matters before leaving for Scotland to resume his holidays at the end of the week. It is understood that his sudden clash to London is due to the Government’s increasing anxiety over the massacre of Assyrians near Simel, Iraq. There is difficulty in getting Iraq to expedite action agaji.nst the offenders and growing fears that delay will prejudicially affect the Assyrian levies.

There is scarcely a doubt that the Assyrian rebels who entered feyrian territory in July were responsible for the trouble. They promised to surrender their arms, but a small Iraq detachment attempted to disarm them, whereupon they were attacked and destroyed. A northern Iraq commander made the iirst reprisal, ordering a dozen Assyrian prisoners to be shot without trial, excusing himself o« account of the public indignation. It is alleged that there was mutilation of the dead.

“There are about forty thousand Assyrians, half of whom are homeless and the others scattered about in temporary villages in the arid mountain area north of Mosul,” says the “Manchester Guardian.” “They were bitterly disappointed when Geneva failed to safeguard them as a community when Iraq was given its independence. The crux of the matter is that the Assyrians want an assurance that they will be allowed to live together for their ow n protection, ruled by their own archbishop, whereupon they will lay down arms and swear loyalty to King Feisal, hut the Iraq Government demands their submission upon whatever conditions the Government may impose.”