مجموعة ١٧ / ١٠ (٤) "شؤون داخلية: الوضع السياسي؛ العلاقات مع الحكومة البريطانية" [و‎‎٤‎٨] (١٠٣١/٩٥)

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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRI-TANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT .-r*
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IRAQ.
CONFIDENTIAL.
June 21, 1944.
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With th* Complimented
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<S Y zV A. Cornwallis to Mr. Eden.—(Received ^ist'^uhe^ ^^
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Section 1. ^4,^^ A- %*<
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Copy rv>7-119
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(No. 225.) _ ^
^j r Bagdad, 8th June, 1944.
WITH reference to my d espatch N o. 1 24 of the 23rd March*-1 ha\e the
honour to submit the following summary of the principal events that have occurred
in Irao during the last two or more months :— .
2. The Cabinet formed by Nuri Pasha on Christmas Day remained m an
uneasy situation throughout March and most of April. The Regent continued to
withhold his active support and to look around for a means to get rid of the three
Ministers whom he particularly disliked, namely, Umar Nadhmi, Ali Mumtaz and
Sadiq Bassam. I repeatedly warned His Royal Highness that the prolonged
uncertainty about the position of the Cabinet was harmful and advised him that
his proper policy was either to give it his full confidence or to replace it by
another if he were certain that something more satisfactory cQuld he found. At
the end of April, after returning from his.tour in the north, His Royal Highness
told me that he had decided to keep the present Cabinet in office.. At this stage it
seemed that it might prove to be possible for Nuri Pasha’s Cabinet to carry on at
least until the end of the summer, but events soon dissipated this prospect. The
debate in the Chamber on the budget for. 1944-45 was exploited as usual for the
discussion of every branch of the work of the Administration and attacks were
made on the Cabinet at all angles. A climax was reached on the 21 st May when
abusive language was freely exchanged between Deputies, and the sitting had to
be suspended in an atmosphere of some disorder. The Prime Minister and his
colleagues were satisfied that their critics would not have dared to become so
violent if thev had not felt that they enjoyed at least the sympathy of the Palace.
The Ministers decided that they could no longer remain in office in such circum
stances and resigned. The Regent accepted their resignation a few days later, and
called upon Hamdi Pachachi to form a Cabinet. The invitation was accepted,
but as the new Prime Minister, who is elderly and in indifferent health, was
indisposed at the time, it fell to the Regent to choose most of his colleagues for
3 . This task was completed within a fortnight and the following Cabinet
took office on the 4th June :■—
Prime Minister : Hamdi al Pachachi.
Minister of Interior : Mustafa al Umari.
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Acting Minister of Supply:
Arshad al Umari.
Minister of Finance : Salih Jabr.
Minister of Defence : Tahsin Ali.
Minister of Communications and Works : Abdul Amir al Uzri.
Minister of Justice : Ahmad Mukhtar Baban.
Minister of Education : Ibrahim Akif al Alusi.
Minister of Economics : Towfiq Wahbi.
Minister of Social Affairs : Muhammad HassamKubba.
Like most Iraqi Cabinets it has both good points and bad. Abdul Amir al
Uzri, Taufiq Wahbi and Ibrahim Akif al Alusi are newcomers’who offer promise
of good work. Arshad al Umari, for years a capable and progressive Lord Mayor
of Bagdad, is a well-known thruster and should, if he is not too temperamental,
be able to give the new Ministry of Supplies a fair start, and Salih Jabr, if he can
resist temptation to sectarian favouritism, has it in him to be an adequate
Minister of Finance. The black spot is Mustafa al Umari at Interior. He last
held this post in Jamil Madfai’s Cabinet in the summer of 1941, and left it with
reputation for corruption, bad even by Iraqi standards. It is a great pity that
he should have been permitted to return, and I gather that it was only the essential
need for support in the Senate that warn him a place in the Cabinet at all.
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[54—61]
REDO. NL.
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INDIA OFFICE