Coll 17/10(4) 'Internal: political situation; relations with HMG' [‎198r] (395/1031)

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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
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August 11, 1942.
Section 1.
(No.
Sir,
Sir Kinahan Cornwallis to Mr. Eden.
207.)
-(Received August 11.)
Copy No
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3 .
Bagdad, August 2, 1942
i Hh two and a-half, months which have elapsed since I wrote my last general
despatch contained no outstanding feature nor any coherent pattern of events
to invest them with special significance or importance. The political, economic
and social life of the country continued to effervesce quietly, but without
movement in any definable direction, and I fear that little of sensational interest
can be instilled into an account of so formless a period.
2. From the middle of May onwards much of my time was taken up with
ministrations to the senile ailments of a Government that shows signs of
approaching the end of its expectation of life. As I related in my last despatch,
the trouble began with the strain imposed upon the cohesion of the members of
the Cabinet by the trial and execution of three of Rashid Ali’s colleagues, and the
subsequent difficulties which the Cabinet had to face caused further stresses
which tended to be cumulative in effect.
3. Soon after the executions the Prime Minister had a physical collapse
and the doctors ordered rest and change. Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. thought of a holiday in
Syria .or Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan , and there at once arose the question of who should act as
Prime Minister during his absence. Subtle questions of seniority and sensitive
jealousies made the choice of a locum tenens from among his colleagues more
than difficult. Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. therefore favoured the solution of bringing Taufiq
Suwaidi into the Cabinet. As a former Prime Minister, Taufiq Beg would,
without question, have presided over Cabinet meetings while the Prime Minister
was away. The other Ministers were not. however, well disposed towards this
idea. They suspected that the Prime Minister was trying to put through a
cunning reinsurance deal with the other side, and foresaw that Taufiq Suwaidi’s
presence in the Cabinet would lead to complications because of his close relation
ship with Naji Suwaidi, one of the most important of the Iraqi politicians
interned in Southern Rhodesia. The Regent for personal reasons also disliked
the idea of Taufiq Suwaidi’s entering the Cabinet, and Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. had to give
up his plan. The possibility of inducing Ibrahim Kemal to enter the Cabinet
was also examined, but he was found to be still too antagonistic to Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
to be willing to accept such a proposal.
4. Fortunately, at this stage it was discovered that the Prime Minister’s
physical troubles were due not to nerves, as had at first been supposed, but to
teeth. The need for him to take prolonged rest outside Iraq passed, and with it
the crisis caused by the difficulty of finding an Acting Prime Minister. Nuri
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. was subjected to a few days’ drastic dental treatment, enjoyed ten days’
holiday in the Kurdish hills, and then returned to Bagdad at the beginning of
July in excellent health.
5. The next crisis came only a week later, when the Minister of Finance,
Ali Mumtaz, resigned. He complained that he was not accorded proper help and
co-operation by his colleagues (especially the Minister of the Interior) in dealing
with the distribution of food supplies, and was upset because he had not been
informed in advance about the internments of harmful persons ordered bv the
Minister of the Interior on the 5th July. The Prime Minister, the Minister of
the Interior and Ali Mumtaz himself all came to me to talk at length and in
detail over their troubles. Each one threw a favourable light on his own
position, leaving the others in the shadow of doubt, and on each one I impressed
the virtue of conciliation and sweet reasonableness. The biggest rift in the lute
was clearly caused by the internments. It was not Ali Mumtaz alone who was
upset; none of the other Ministers liked to see the Minister of the Interior and
the Prime Minister in a position to shut up people at discretion without reference
to the Cabinet, It was noticed, moreover, that Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. always protected his
friends, however bad their record, and the other Ministers resented an arrange
ment which left them powerless to do the same for their own dependants and
[32—42] b