IOR/L/PS/10/919

• Considerations over supporting Feisal’s candidacy, particularly in the face of significant French opposition, and other possible options for the country’s future government
• Perceived public support for Feisal’s candidacy, and a referendum in which he received 96% of the vote
• Negotiations between Feisal and the High Commissioner, Mesopotamia [Iraq], over which powers he will hold and which will be retained by the British Government
• Feisal’s coronation as King on 23 August 1921
• Negotiations for the Treaty, and its signing on 10 October 1922
• Opposition to the Treaty, including a fatwa issued by Khalisi [Muḥammad bin Muḥammad Mahdī al-Khāliṣī] against participating in the subsequent elections
• An agreement to terminate the terms of the Treaty upon Iraq’s admission to the League of Nations, or within four years of ratification of the peace treaty with Turkey [Treaty of Lausanne]
• Election of the Iraqi Constituent Assembly
• A perceived likelihood that the Assembly will reject ratification of the Treaty, and British considerations of possible subsequent actions
• A vote by the Assembly in favour of ratifying the Treaty on 10 June 1924.

The primary correspondents are the High Commissioner and the Colonial Office. Other correspondents include: the Civil Commissioner, Mesopotamia (prior to the appointment of the High Commissioner); General Headquarters, Mesopotamia; the Ambassador of France to the United Kingdom; HM Ambassador to France; HM Ambassador to Italy; the Foreign Office; the India Office; the War Office; and HM King George V.

Draft copies of the Treaty are on folios 161-63, 187-89, 276-82 and 289-94, and the final text (under the title ‘Treaty with King Feisal’) is included on folios 69-71. Other agreements subsidiary to the Treaty are included on folios 72-91, and draft copies of the Financial Agreement and Military Agreement are on folios 150-52.

The volume includes three items in French, a letter from the French Ambassador (ff 478-81) and two articles from French newspaper L’Écho de Paris (ff 448 and 452).

The volume includes a divider which gives the subject and part numbers, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references contained in that part by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.