مجموعة ١٠/١٧(١) "شؤون داخلية: الوضع السياسي؛ العلاقات مع الحكومة البريطانية" [و‎‎٢‎٤‎٢] (٩٨٢/٤٨٨)

T-
EASTERN (Iraq).
CONFIDENTIAL.
Section 1.
[E 3287/1583/93]
Sir A. Clark Kerr to Sir John Simon.—(Received May 27.)
(No. 267.)
to my telegrams No. m of the 8th ^'iSToUhe
13th May, I have the honour to furnish you with the following details of the
deterioration which has taken place during the past week in the situation in the
Midcile and Lower Euphrates areas.
2. As I have stated in a number of previous reports, the most pressing of
the immediate problems confronting Yasin Pasha’s Cabinet was the pacification
of the tribal elements of the Middle Euphrates hostile to Abdul Wahid.
Yasin Pasha and his colleagues themselves quickly appreciated this essential fact
Since taking office, the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior have tried
every means of reassuring these sheikhs. They have also been fully supported by
Nun Pasha, who, as a member of the Ali Jaudat Cabinet, enjoys in a large
measure the confidence of the tribes now so bitterly jealous and suspicious of a
GrOvernment which appears to them to have been put into power by their tribal
enemies.
3. Throughout April representative sheikhs of these tribes paid constant
visits to Bagdad, and conferred frequently with the principal Ministers and with
Sir Kinahan Cornwallis, all of whom persevered in their efforts to convince the
sheikhs that the Government would govern justly and would not show preference
to Abdul Wahid and his supporters. In order to demonstrate their impartiality,
the Government published on the 15th May an official communique announcing
the suspension of the activities of the Hizb-al-Ikha-al-Watani (the party of
National Brotherhood), the political party of which the Prime Minister and the
Minister of the Interior are the leaders. The Prime Minister gave, in addition,
private assurances that, in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, the anti-
Abdul Wahid sheikhs would be given as many seats as they had had in the last
Chamber. Strenuous efforts were also made by intermediaries to reconcile the
two tribal factions and to persuade the Ulema of the Holy Cities to stop fishing
in troubled waters. Some of those concerned were won over, but others remained
obstinately mistrustful, and Kashif-al-Ghata, the turbulent divine of Karbela,
clung tenaciously to the sectarian demands to which I referred in my despatch
No. 171 of the 28th March. These demands have not yet been formally presented
to the King or to the Government, but many of the anti-Abdul Wahid and
Muntafiq sheikhs have given binding promises to support the Ulema in their
struggle for the Shiah cause.
4. Involved and tortuous negotiations continued throughout April, and by
the beginning of May there were signs of improvement, which strengthened hopes
of a peaceful settlement. At this juncture, however, the Cabinet took an ill-
advised step. They learned that in Rumaitha a certain Shiah priest, named
Ahmad Asadullah, a follower of Kashif-al-Ghata, was inciting the local tribes
against the Government. He was arrested on the afternoon of the 7th May an
removed to Bagdad. That evening the local tribes, the Abu Hassan the Bam
Zuraij and the Dhuwalim, revolted. Under the lead of the Sheikh 0 6 ani
Zuraij, Khawam-al-Abbas, they tore up the railway line on both sides of the town
and looted the station and the bazaar. The railway personnel were ab e to escape
and have since found their way to Bagdad. The police success 11 y ^
serai, but, since the evening of the 7th May, no trains have een run sou
^^“^OnrheZtrng'rthlsth May, several Royal Air Force machines passed
over Rumaitha, and one machine, which flew low over the to^, appears to a c
been hit by rifle fire and forced to land with the loss of two lives. On the follow
day the Air Officer Commanding sent a special service o c
[406 dd—1]
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