IOR/L/PS/12/577

This file concerns arrangements for the detention by the British military authorities of a number of Iraqi political refugees (plus a smaller number of Palestinian refugees) located in Persia, some of whom are reported to have taken refuge in the Japanese Legation in Tehran.

The principal correspondents are the following: His Majesty's Ambassador in Tehran (Sir Reader William Bullard), His Majesty's Ambassador in Baghdad (Sir Kinahan Cornwallis), and officials of the Foreign Office, the Dominions Office, and the Government of India's External Affairs Department.

Related matters of discussion include the following:

• Whether the Iraqi refugees (some of whom are ex-ministers) should be returned to Iraq and handed over to the Iraqi authorities for trial.
• Whether the refugees should be interned elsewhere, such as in India or Southern Rhodesia, and whether they can be accompanied by their families.
• Reports of the Turkish Government having secretly deported around 170 Iraqi refugees.
• The whereabouts of former Iraqi Prime Minister in exile Rashid Ali El Kilani [Rashīd ʿAlī al-Gaylānī], and the results of his trial, conducted in his absence.

Although the date range of the file is 1941-1944, most of the correspondence dates from 1941 to 1942.

The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence (folio 1).