SLAUGHTER OF ASSYRIANS

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1933, Page 5

SLAUGHTER OF ASSYRIANS

IRAQ FORGES’ EXCESSES

SUPPRESSION, OF REBELLION

NEWS DISTURBS BRITAIN

SERIOUS EFFECTS FEARED

By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Rec. 9.55 p.m. London, Aug. 16.

News has reached London that during the suppression of the recent rebellion by a section of the Assyrian minority in Iraq, the Iraq forces killed 200 persons who had no connection with the revolt, says the Times. It is also reported that a number of villages were burnt in the Dohuk district and elsewhere north of Mosul, where the conditions of Assyrian women and. children are described as pitiable.

There is reason to believe these excesses were committed less by Iraq troops than by irregular police, who are mostly Kurds, at feud with the Assyrians. Their commander is also notoriously anti-Assyrian. News of the events, which has been communicated to Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, caused deep concern in British official circles. Mr. Humphreys, British Ambassador in Iraq, is hurrying to Bagdad from Norway, where he was on holiday. It is fully realised that the misbehaviours of Iraq irregulars are likely to provoke sharp criticism at Geneva, where there has been a marked tendency to regard the British belief in the capacity of an Arab government to control its officers as dangerously optimistic. It is also feared the news may have a bad effect on the Assyrian levies who are guarding British aerodromes in Iraq.