'File 11/44 Leading Personalities in Iraq, Iran & Saudi Arabia' [‎22r] (43/96)

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Proceeded in November 1945 full of gloom. After
a holiday in Stockholm, returned to Bagdad in
October 1946 ostensibly on leave. He has since
returned to his post.
3. Abdul Amir al Uzri.
Shia, born Kadhima in 1899. Educated Bagdad
and United States, where he graduated from
Michigan University as D.Sc. (S.E.). He returned
to Iraq in 1929 and was appointed engineer in the
Directorate-General of Irrigation, in which he rose
to the post of Assistant Director-General in 1941.
He acted as Director-General on several occasions.
Appointed Minister of Communications and Works
in Hamdi Pachachi’s Cabinet in June 1944. Was
Minister of Supply in August 1944, returning at the
end of the month to his former Ministry. Resigned
with Cabinet in February 1946. Appointed Director-
General of Irrigation in May 1946. Speaks English
well and is pleasant, intelligent and friendly.
4. Abdul Aziz-al-Mudhaffar, M.B.E.
Sunni of Bagdad. Born 1897. Speaks English,
German and French well. Served as superintendent
in Deputy Military Governor’s Office, Bagdad
Rasafah, under the Government of Occupation from
March 1917, and in 1919 became Mudir of Rasafah.
Secretary to the Ministry of Interior, December
1£20, and Director of the Press Bureau in 1922.
if'ector of Census Department 1927.
Appointed Mutessarif of Mosul, May 1931. With
drawn September 1931 for incompetence and tried
for misappropriation of public funds. Found not
guilty and appointed to be member of Muntafiq
Land Court. Lost this post when the court was
abolished in June 1932. In the summer of 1933 was
appointed first secretary to the Iraqi Legation at
Tehran, and in May 1934 was transferred to be
consul-general in Beirut.
Appointed counsellor to the Iraqi Legation in
Paris, May 1935.
In the spring of 1937 he was accused of giving
false certificates for munitions bought for Spain and
recalled to Iraq. In Syria he was arrested, but
extradition was refused and he was released, but
remained in Syria. He is married to a daughter of
Naji-al-Suwaidi, and this family connexion brought
about his full exoneration in December.
He returned to live in Bagdad in January 1938,
and shortly afterwards it was officially announced
"^t it had been proved that he was innocent of the
charges made against him in 1937. On his return he
went into business.
Early in 1941 started a trans-desert transport ser
vice between Bagdad, Syria and Palestine. Was
suspected of working for Rashid Ali. After the
collapse of Rashid Ali’s regime, did his best to clear
his name and made lavish use of the “ V ” sign on
his business stationery and press advertisements.
As director of Iraqi Manufacturing and Trading
Company was interested in the erection of a wax
match factory An East India Company trading post. in 1944.
5. Abdul Aziz-al-Qassab.
Sunni of Bagdad. Kai'makam of Kut under the
Naqib’s Provisional Government and did very well.
In October 1921 he was appointed Mutessarif of
Mosul on probation for six months, but refused to go
without the salary of a full mutessarif. In the
beginning of 1922 he went as Mutessarif of Karbala,
was transferred to Muntafiq in January 1923, and to
the Ministry of Interior as Director-General of
General Administration in June of the same year.
Appointed Mutessarif of Mosul in January 1924. A
capable and well-intentioned official without much
strength of character. Minister of Interior, January
1928. Minister for Justice, November 1929.
Went out of office with the resignation of Naji
Pasha’s Cabinet im March 1930. Has not held any
other Cabinet post since. Has an adequate pension.
Appointed Chief Administrative Inspector, Grade I,
November 1933.
He was appointed Minister of the Interior in the
Cabinet formed by Jamil-al-Madfai in March 1935,
but resigned with all his colleagues twelve days later.
Elected a Deputy for Bagdad in the general elections
of August 1935. Appointed Comptroller-General of
Accounts in December 1937, in succession to Taufiq-
al-Suwaidi.
Deputy for Bagdad March 1947. Member of the
Council of Regency summer 1947.
6. A bdul Fettah bin Ibrahim
Born Bagdad 1906. Educated in Basra and
Bagdad he was appointed as a teacher in 1924. He
was sent to the American University, Beirut, whence
he graduated B.A. in 1932. On returning to Iraq he
was given an appointment as translator in the Port
Directorate and in 1933 was transferred in the same
capacity to the Ministry of Justice. In 1934 he
returned to Education as a teacher and served in
Bagdad and Nasiriyah. In 1939, on account of his
Leftist political views, he was transferred to Anah
but succeeded in getting re-transferred to Bagdad in
1940. He taught in various schools in Bagdad until
1943, when he was appointed “ Specialist
Inspector ” in which capacity he was undoubtedly
an evil intluence. In an endeavour to reduce the
growth of communism in the capital he was trans
ferred as Director of Education, Basra Liwa, in 1945.
He refused to take up the appointment and resigned
on 11th June, 1945. After quitting Government ser
vice he became director of the Rabitah Printing and
Publishing Company, which prints and publishes
most of the Leftist literature. He still holds this
post.
Undoubtedly he was infected by communism
while in Beirut. After his return, he was reported
as openly teaching communism to his students. All
efforts to curb him failed, as will be seen by his
frequent transfers. During the war he worked hard
against “ the Nazis ” but at the same time worked
equally hard with the “underground” campaign
against the Government and made preparatory
propaganda against the British. He was the founder
of Hizb el Ittihad el Watani (Party of National
Unity) and the chief instigator of Hizb el Sha’abi e.
Watani (Popular National Party).
He is sympathetic to communism but his name
was not connected in any way with those tried
during 1947 for underground Communist activity.
7. A bdul Hadi Chalabi
Shiah. Bom in Bagdad in 1895, the son of a
wealthy landowner who was several times Minister
of Education.
Chalabi was first elected a Deputy for Bagdad in
1934. In March 1935 he was arrested in connexion
with the Kadhimain riots and deprived of his
political rights until the amnesty of November of
that year. He became a Deputy again in 1939. He
attended the Atlantic City Economic Conference in
August 1945. He is one of the most important corn
brokers in the country and has large dealings with
Messrs. Andrew Weir & Co., consequently better
known in business than in political circles; this is
his first Cabinet post. In the past he has supported
Nuri al Said and Jamil Madfai. Speaks only Arabic
and Persian. He has a wife who appears in public.
Minister of Communications and Works in the
al Umari Cabinet of June 1946.
Senator 2nd July, 1947.
8. Dr. Abdul Hadi al Pachachi
Born in 1894, the son of a former Rais Belediya of
Bagdad. He was educated in Bagdad and Istanbul
and qualified as a doctor in France. He entered
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