Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎262r] (533/978)

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Leumi, escaped from arrest on the 19th
June, but surrendered to the authorities
before the end of the month.
Two cases of attempted abduction of
British officials have recently taken place
in Jerusalem. On the 28th June an attack
wvyi automatic weapons on a cafe in Haifa
resulted in the death of one British officer
and the wounding of two others. In Tel
Aviv, on the same evening, three soldiers
were killed and one wounded while walking
down Ailenby Road, one of the main
thoroughfares. An attack was made by
twelve Jews on officers and men on the
beach at Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, on
the 29th June in which two soldiers were
injured, one of them seriously.
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
His Majesty King Abdullah has
received proposals from Ibn Sa’ud for
opening negotiations for the settlement of
frontier questions between 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 Sa’udi Arabia, and is sending an
acceptance. At the same time, His
Majesty is somewhat apprehensive and at a
loss to understand the motives underlying
Ibn Sa’ud’s actions in this matter, which
was raised by the Amir Faisal with the
Prime Minister of 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 in London
last November, and should have been dis
cussed by the Amir when he visited
Amman at the end of December. At that
time, however, he excused himself from all
political discussion on the ground of ill-
health.
The 28th June was celebrated in
Amman as the thirtieth anniversary of the
beginning of the Arab Revolt under King
Husain. In a speech by King Abdullah,
read for him by an official, occur the words,
£t The natural unity of Syria has become
the right of this nation and the purpose
of its struggle.” Although the reference
is, presumably, to Arabs in 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 Syria, the assumption that His
Majesty’s dream of a Greater Syria is
shared by many of his neighbours appears
from all the evidence to be quite un
warranted.
Syria
Elections are due to take place on the
7th July, but the prospects are extremely
obscure. The publicity given to the mal
practices in the Lebanese elections has
given rise to the hope that the Syrian Gov
ernment may be discouraged from
following suit.
The death is announced of Sa’adullah
Jabri, who was Prime Minister and
Minister of Foreign Affairs until his resig
nation in January last. He was an ardent
nationalist, but since his main object of
securing complete independence was
attained, did not seem to have any clearly-
defined policy. He was 57.
Iraq
At the end of May the Chamber of Depu
ties voted 3 million Iraqi dinars (equiva
lent to pounds sterling) for railway con
struction and improvements. An extension
is to be built from Kerbela to Najaf and
Kufa, and the Baiji-Tel Kotchek section of
the main line, completed during the recent
war, is to be improved. There has been
some heated criticism of the railway
administration in Parliament, and particu
larly of the British experts employed by the
Government. The Prime Minister has
stated that his Government would continue
to employ foreigners until Iraq was in a
position to dispense with their services.
Persia
The new Cabinet—Qawam’s fifth—(see
last week’s Summary) although not differ
ing greatly from the last, is a considerable
improvement upon it. Two, at least, of
the five ministers dropped, Aramesh and
Nikpay, are known to have collected money
(ostensibly for the Party chest) by highly
irregular means, while Shayegan and
Sayyah are nonentities. Of the new
ministers, Dr. Issa Sadiq, Hikmat and
Salman Assadi are able and respected,
Mustafa Adi (Minister for Justice) is an
outstanding personality, and Ahmed
Husain Adi (Agriculture), a former
Director-General of Agriculture, is well-
suited to his present appointment, which
he has held twice in recent years. Little
is known of Nasr (Posts and Telegraphs),
but the appointment is, in any case, a
minor one. The retention of Homayunjah
and Musavizadeh (Minister for Justice in
the last Cabinet and the Prime Minister’s
right-hand man in the Democrat Party)
without portfolio is probably due to the
difficulty of dropping them at this stage.
On the 27th June the Prime Minister
announced in an official proclamation that
the Shah would open the Majlis on the
17th July. The proclamation also con
tained a warning that martial law, which
was lifted in Tehran on the 16th June,
would be re-imposed unless the press
ceased to abuse their newly-won freedom.
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