THE STATUS OF IRAK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20365, 20 September 1929, Page 12

THE STATUS OF IRAK.

Considerable interest attaches to the suggestion that the British Government will support an early application of Irak to be admitted to membership in the League of Nations. Irak presents an exceptional case among the mandates, and is really not a mandated territory. There was at one time an intention to treat it eo, and when the Allied Supremo Council met at San Remo, in 1920. to select mandatories for the dependent countries under Turkish sovereignty before the war, Britain was chosen. But before the terms of the mandate had been defined by the League Council it appeared to the British Government advisable to contemplate an early granting of independence to Irak- without the issue of a mandate at all. The British representative so informed the Council, expressing the desire of the people of Irak for tho formation of a national Government under an Arab ruler and the wish of Britain, in view of that desire, to discharge its obligations in relation to the League by the conclusion of a treaty of alliance embodying principles in harmony with mandate responsibility and yet allowing of an early granting of the desired independence. The Council approved; the treaty was concluded in 1922; it was communicated to the League and endorsed, as were subsidiary agreements; then, when the Council had subsequently accepted the task of defining the frontier between Turkey and Irak, it invited the British Government to submit a new treaty, ensuring the continuation of this virtual mandatory regime for twenty-five years, unless Irak became a member of the League before the expiration of that period. This new treaty was approved in 1925, and each year since then there has been consideration of reports on Irak by tho Mandates Commission as if the territory were held under ordinary mandate conditions. Always, however, there has been a clear understanding that, as soon as conditions were favourable, independence would be granted, the simultaneous accession of Irak to League membership keeping its people under the unbroken oversight of the League. The only point left undecided has been that of the appropriate time for this change of status. In the opinion of the Baldwin Government, the favourable conditions had not ' emerged. Whether they now exist is a question for consideration, and it is unlikely the change will be made without very thorough ventilation of all aspects. In November last the Mandates Commission, reviewing the mosfr recent agreements between Britain and Irak, and also the difficulties attendant on Irak's relations with Persia and its boundary dispute with Syria, was averse to precipitate action.