مجموعة ١٠/١٧(١) "شؤون داخلية: الوضع السياسي؛ العلاقات مع الحكومة البريطانية" [و‎‎١‎١‎٩] (٩٨٢/٢٤٢)

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of his household and private life. Such a situation, unless handled with gieat
Mrr might easily bring the Government into disfavour with King Ghazi, who
would then be likely to lend himself to the intrigues of the Opposition designed
to overthrow the Government. The chance of escaping irom the close restiamt
to which it was proposed he should now be subjected might be a strong temptation
'A him to o-ive way x to the blandishments of the group of politicians under Jamil
G adfai who were always hoping to slip back into office. Yasin added tnat at
nresent’he believed that he still enjoyed King Ghazi’s goodwill and confidence,
but, if this were withdrawn, it would be impossible for him to carry on the
government of the country. , , •,
24 I said that I felt sure that his Excellency possessed tact and authority
enough to equip him to deal with these difficulties. Here Nuri interrupted and,
pointing at me, said: “It all really depends upon you and your Government.
If you support us we shall succeed/' Yasin, who, as I have said, had kept his
wisdom at once retorted that he had no wish to be in the position of having to
depend upon British support. Friendly co-operation was one thing, dependence
was something quite different. If it were known, or even widely believed, that
he was dependent upon the Embassy, his influence and power would vanish at
once On the other hand, he said, if Nuri remained his friend and worked with
him, he could hope that his Cabinet would be strong enough to ward off the
danger which seemed to be threatening, but if Nuri left him he knew well
enough that he could not remain in office. Upon this the two Ministers pledged
their 3 ]ovalty to each other with every evidence of sincerity.
25. It was no small pleasure to me to see this spontaneous declaration of
allegiance made in my presence, for I had not forgotten that, when last the paths
of these two men (upon whose co-operation the stability of Iraq seems to depend)
threatened to diverge, the task of reconciliation had fallen upon me and I had
been unable to persuade them to meet and discuss their differences, but had been
obliged to fetch and carry between them.
26. Nuri then asked me if I would help by speaking to King Ghazi myself
and Yasin took up this suggestion with enthusiasm. He begged that I should
I tell His Majesty what his people were saying about him, for King Ghazi plainly
r did not appreciate the extent to which his name had become a by-word in the
country. Some friendly advice from myself, as Ambassador and as a spectator
of events in Iraq, would be a valuable contribution to the solution of the present
problem. This I agreed to do on the condition that I should be allowed to see
His Majesty alone.
' 27. I then asked them about the princess. Did they think that public feeling
against her conduct was dying down? To my astonishment Tasin clenched ^his
fist, and, hammering out his words with blows on the arm of his chair, said : So
long as Nuri and I and every other Iraqi who has felt this disgrace have breath m
our bodies, we shall continue to wish for the death of that miserable girl.
With vigour and feeling in harmony with his own, I spoke again of the deep
horror with which the murder of the princess would be regarded throughout the
civilised world. For a long while we threshed out every point in the case, and
in the end I led them reluctantly away from thoughts of murder and back again to
the less horrible alternative of the dissolution of the marriage and the temporary
detention of the princess somewhere in Europe. Yasin maintained that she must
be brought to Iraq so that the people might know that she was mad, but Nuri,
with my support, urged that it would be enough that she should be shut up
somewhere abroad for a while and later on perhaps released and allowed to
disappear.
28. Yasin then asked whether His Majesty’s Government would help to
bring about the dissolution of the marriage. I was purposely vague in my answer,
first because I thought that such a request would be an embarrassment to you and
then because I remembered that, when discussing the day before the return of
the princess to Iraq, Yasin had still had murder at the back of his mind.
29. My conversation with King Ghazi was not as painful as I had expected.
I like to think that I was gentle with him. In any case he took what I had to say
in good part. He said that he had only just learned that his way of life had
become a public scandal. Until now nobody had had the friendliness to come to
him to give him any warning. I must not believe everything that was told me.
All he had perhaps been guilty of was some harmless little indiscretions with
servants to whom he was attached and he would certainly not repeat them. I
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