NOT RESPONSIBLE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 931, 29 November 1933, Page 1

NOT RESPONSIBLE.

Britain’s Position Over Iraq Mandate. RIGHTS OF THE ASSYRIANS. British Official Wireless. (Received November 29, 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, November 28. In the House of Lords the Archbishop of Canterbury called attention to the plight of the Assyrians, and said that he shared the hope expressed by Sir John Simon that the Council of the League of Nations would be able to make a satisfactory and ending solution of a most perplexing and difficult problem—the finding of a place of settlement for the Assyrian people. Replying, Lord Hailsham recalled that after the war, which the Assyrians entered at the instance of Russia, Britain saved them from annihilation by keeping many thousands of them in refugee camps at considerable expense. Since that time Britain had assisted them to settle on the lands which they occupied before the war, and in other suitable places. It was not possible to settle them in one homogeneous community in Europe. Lord Hailsham denied that Sir Francis Humphreys had assured the Mandates Commission at Geneva that Britain would accept responsibility for the future safety and welfare of the Assyrians after the cessation' of the mandate and the entrance of Iraq into the League. To a question by the Mandates Commission as to whether Iraq had reached such a state of development that it could be relied upon to exercise religious toleration, Sir Francis Humphreys had replied that he was satisfied that Iraq could be so relied upon, and the responsibility for that view rested upon the British Government, not upon the Mandates Commission. He never gave any assurance that after Britain gave up the mandate she would guarantee the protection of minorities in Iraq. Lord Hailsham pointed out that in the recent disturbances the Assyrians had attacked first and had they succeeded a first-class war would have broken out, with the certainty of very serious repercussions. On the other hand the excesses of the Iraquians after subduin gthe Assj’rians were quite unjustifiable and merited and had received the severest condemnation. The Iraq Government had undertaken *to make a substantial contribution towards whatever cost might be incurred in resettling the Assyrians. The view of the Government tvas that, apart from the special responsibility of the Iraq Government, there rested also a very great responsibility on the League of Nations as a whole.