Coll 17/10(1) 'Internal: political situation; relations with HMG' [‎468r] (940/982)

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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
EASTERN (Iraq).
• i - ko.;
£mber 14, 1932.
CONFIDENTIAL.
/ G . / ;
Section 2.
V-
w 193 2 i
i v
[E 5950/3910/93] No. 1.
Sir H. 1 oung to Sir John Simon.—{Received November 14.)
(No. 1060. Secret.)
SlI j Bandar] N niip'm Iipv 1
. ON Wednesday, the 26th October, Nun Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. As Said and Rustam Haidar
arrived m Bagdad by air, the remaining delegates to the Iraqi delegation at
Geneva having already returned overland. I drove to the aerodrome to meet
them, this being the first occasion on which I had been able to leave my house for
ten days. On Thursday morning I received a telephone message from the palace
that King Feisal was glad to hear that I was better and would like to see me.
After a short conversation on matters of no importance, he surprised me by saving
that Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , who had dined alone with him the previous night, had announced
his intention of resigning, $nd that he wished to consult me on the position thus
created. He repeated what he had already told me (see paragraph 7 of my
despatch No. 1000 of the 13th October), that he had been for some time working
for a coalition or National Government under the leadership of Yasin Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. A1
Hashimi, but that he had been unable to induce him to make the public recantation
of his opposition to the treaty of 1930, which was, of course, an essential
preliminary to his being summoned to form a Government. He did not altogether
like the idea of asking Nuri to form a new Government, partly because his health
was uncertain, partly because he w r as inclined to interfere with the work of the
Ministries, but chiefly because he differed from him fundamentally in his concep
tion of the correct policy for an Iraqi Government to pursue. Nuri was always
quoting the precedent o,f the Earl of Chatham (whom I had some difficulty in
recognising under the pseudonym of Bitt) to justify the employment of persons
of no reputation in order to defeat the equally disreputable manoeuvres of the
Opposition. He was himself entirely opposed to this theory, the practical
application of which would, in his opinion, lead to the ruin of the country. He
felt that purity of public life, so far as this was attainable among his admittedly
imperfect subjects, was the only true aim. For this reason he was anxious to
entrust the task of government to some more scrupulous individual than Nuri-as-
Said, whom he would prefer to retain as Minister for Foreign Affairs.
2. On my enquiring what had led to this, to me, unexpectedly rapid
development, he said that it had always been understood that Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , whose
sole task had been to carry through to their successful conclusion the negotiations
for the treaty of 1930. and for the admission of Iraq to membership of the League
of Nations, would tender his resignation as soon as he returned from Geneva.
I replied that I was well aware that some reconstruction of the Cabinet was in
contemplation, but that I had not anticipated that Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. would actually
resign, and that he should announce his intention of doing so within a few hours
of his return to Bagdad, and only a week before the opening of Parliament, was-
a great surprise to me. In any case, I assumed that King Feisal did not
contemplate any immediate action, in view not only of his promise to Sir Francis
Humphrys that he would await his return before making any change, but also off
the obvious propriety, if only as a matter of courtesy, of allowing the Prime
Minister to report to Parliament on the success of his mission.
3. To the first of these arguments His Majesty replied that his promise
had been given at a time when he had expected Sir Francis Humphrys and Nuri
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. to return to Bagdad together from Europe a fortnight before the date
fixed for the opening of Parliament. His hand had now been forced by Nuri
Pasha’s resignation, more especially as he understood that article 39 of the
Constitution made it necessary that Senators and Deputies should receive their
full salary of 4,000 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. apiece, even if Parliament sat for only one day. He
fully hoped that Nuri Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. would form a new Government, but what was to-
happen if this hope was falsified, and it proved impossible to find another Prime