CRISIS IN IRAQ

Northern Advocate, 19 August 1933, Page 9

CRISIS IN IRAQ

BRITAIN'S ACTIVITY FRIENDLY HELP. OFFERED. AMBASSADOR RETURNS TO BAGDAD. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 17. The Prime Minister, Mr Ramsay Mae Donald, returned to Lossiemouth this evening. He was in consultation this morning with Mr Robert Yansittart, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and Captain R. A. Eden, Parliamentary Under-Secretary, about current international questions.

This- afternoon Mr Mae Donald received Mr Francis Humphrys, British Ambassador to Traq, with whom he discussed the Assyrian situation in Northern Traq. Sir Francis is to return at once to Bagdad by air, and will use his friendlv offices in the crisis.

Pending, the return of the ambassador, King Feisal is reported to have postponed his intended visit to Switzerland.

iTaq was admitted to membership of the League of Nations last November, when the British Mandate terminated and British responsibilities in Iraq ceased. However, there is a treaty of alliance between Britain and Iraq. A later message from Bagdad stated that under the Iraq Government's deportation order, Patriarch Marshinum left for Cyprus, where his father and brother have also been given asylum. He is regarded as responsible for the Assyrian invasion. MASSACRE DEPLORED. BRITISH OPTIMISM BLAMED. LEAGUE MUST ACT. (Times Cable.) (Received .0 a.m.) LONDON, August IS. "The Times," in a leading article, says it anticipates that strong references to the deplorable events in Iraq will be made at Geneva in September, where British official optimism is likely to be as much criticised as Arab negligence. The paper says the Iraq Government's best defence is to deal severely with the officers and officials whose violence has injured its reputation, ■Mi-iodiatoly to make restitution to the innocent communities which have suffered violence and spoliation. "The Times" expresses the opinion that the Iraq Government be urged to detain the Patriarch Marshinum, because he encouraged his wilder followers to undertake the hare-brained march into French Syria which led to the disasters.

The League of Nations, which in 1925 mistakenly refused to include the Assyrians' homeland in Iraq, can still repair its error, and assist the "Assyrians to find new homes in Syria and elsewhere.