IOR/L/PS/12/1977

The file contains correspondence and newspaper extracts related to the right of nations to utilise aerial bombardment for internal police purposes. It covers the attitude of the Iraqi and Afghan governments towards the use of air power in, or adjacent to, their territory. There is also some examination of the use of air power by France against ‘dissidents’ in Morocco (see folios 46-49) and by the Soviet Union against ‘dissidents’ in Turkmenistan; a translation of a propaganda pamphlet dropped by Soviet aircraft over Turkoman villages during August 1933 can be found on folios 54-56. The file also contains an account examining the reasoning and purpose behind the British bombing of the Indian village of Kotkai in August 1933: see folios 32-38. The discussion takes place against the background of the Geneva Disarmament Conference (1932-1934).

The file includes translated extracts from the Islah, which are included to illustrate reporting that the Foreign Office perceives to be damaging to Britain: see folios 6-7, 27-28, and 40-41. Extracts from the Birmingham Post (folio 16), the Morning Post (folio 17), and the News Chronicle (folio 20) have also been included.

The main correspondents are as follows: HM Minister at Kabul (Richard Roy Maconachie), HM Representative at Baghdad (George Arthur Ogilvie Forbes, Acting Counsellor, and Francis Henry Humphrys, Ambassador), officials at the Foreign Office and other British diplomatic representatives. The correspondence is periodically forwarded to the Under-Secretary of State for India by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; very little correspondence in this file directly involves the India Office.

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.