REVOLT COLLAPSES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 153, 31 May 1941, Page 7

REVOLT COLLAPSES

SITUATION IN IRAQ. ARMS TO BE LAID DOWN. LONDON, May 30. The Quisling regime of Rashid Ali in Iraq has collapsed and he has fled the country to Iran (Persia). The Bagdad radio, according to a Reuter report, has announced that. a.Security Commission lias been appointed. All schools have been closed and the so-called commission lias issued an order dissolving all military organisations and ordering all young soldiers to give up tiieir arms and gel back into civil.an dress. The promised German help never materialised in spile ol Vichy s compliance m granting a passage through .syria lor Herman aeroplanes. .Meanwhile the rigntiul ruler is back in Iraq and ts receiving many offers of help. 'the main British Forces are nq,w live miles lrom Bagdad and another: torce has reached Ir ol the Chaldees.! Italian planes as well as German have! been encountered over Iraq. A Vichy report that young King Feisal lias been removed to Iran witn Rashid Ali should bo treated with re- ' serve.

! EXCELLENT PROGRESS. BY BRITISH FORCES. (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 9.38 a.m.) RUGBf, May 30. ill Iraq the British Forces have advanced lrom Basra nearly 50 miles up the Euphrates and have occupied Luqueait, about 50 miles south-east of Ur. The troops operating in the Bag- : dad area advancing from Khannukhta have been impeded by extensive Hoods and also damage to the “iron bridge” : eight miles west of Bagdad. A British mobile force, however, lias reached the neighbourhood of Kadaiman,: live miles north-west of Bagdad. Our lighters have maintained pat- ; rols throughout the day in support of: our advancing troops. Three Italian Caproni 32’s were intercepted by our reconnaissance aircraft near Khan I and one enemy aircraft was shot down. ' Reconnaissance and bombing co-opera-1 tion were effecLed with our mechanis- i cd columns. At the Deir el Z.or aerodrome (Syria); the hangars were successfully at-j tacked. It is learned ill official quarters in | London that Rashid Ali crossed the frontiei intr Iran accompanied by : Amin Saki, his chief of staff, and the 1 so-styled “Regent” Sliaraf, whom he i purported to appoint Regent in place ! of Abdul I llali.