SETTLING ASSYRIANS.

Wairarapa Age, 13 February 1936, Page 3

SETTLING ASSYRIANS.

DEBATE IN HOUSE OF LORDS. APPEAL FOR FUNDS. RUGBY, February 11. A plan for the settling of Assyrians in the Ghab district in Syria was the subject of a debate in the House of Lords this afternoon, being initiated by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He pointed out that when the contributions already promised, including a sum of £250,000 which the British Government had offered, had been added together a balance of £lBO,OOO remained to be found. The Primate stated that he was ready to inaugurate a public appeal for this money and had already secured a strong committee to give effect to it if the Government approved. | The Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Lord Stanhope) said that although the Government felt that it ' had no actual liability in regard to I the settlement of Assyrians, it decided to make an offer of £250,000 to the League on condition that Irak made an equal contribution, and Irak had agreed. The result was that the total cost of settlement left a gap of £lBO,000.- The only hope to meet this gap and to clear up the situation would be a substantial response to the appeal the Archbishop proposed to make to private charity. The Government would help the appeal and hoped it would be a great success. The scheme for the settlement of the’ Assyrians requires preliminary work of reclamation and development in the plain known as the Ghab, including extensive drainage and irrigation at a cost of about £827,000, of which the French Mandatory authorities are finding about £380,000. The alluvial soil of the vjalley of Orontes is believed to be of great potential richness. It is anticipated that the Assyrians will be able to begin to cultivate their permanent lands in 1940.

The net cost of the settlement operation itself, as distinct from the preliminary reclamation and development, was estimated in the original plan submitted to the League of Nations last September at about £320,000. This covered provision for administration, transport of Assyrians from Irak, food supplies, motor vehicles and tractors, agricultural implements and seed, livestock, construction of houses, schools, and churches, and sanitary services and supplies. Most important of these credits is for food—about £125,000— during the period before settlers are able to grow sufficient for their own needs. As the result of a resolution of the League Council an autonomous Board of Trustees for Assyrian Settlement has been established at Beirut. Its task is to collaborate with the French Mandatory authorities in the administration of the actual settlement operation—as distinct from the reclamation works on Ghab plain, execution of which is be-

ing left to the Mandatory authorities ■ —and to assume local financial responsibility within the limits of its regular budgets as- approved by the League of Nations. The French Mandatory authorities propose eventually to naturalise Assyrians en blue, after which they will be in the same position and enjoy the same rights as the other religious minorities in the States covered by the mandate fbr Syria.—(British Official Wireless).