IOR/L/PS/12/2881A

The file contains papers relating to the Treaty of Alliance (Anglo-Iraqi Treaty) of 1930 between the United Kingdom and Iraq, and the revised Treaty of Alliance of 1948.

Papers dated January 1933 to December 1934 mostly concern the following: the attitude and policy of King Feisal and the Iraqi Cabinet towards the Treaty of 1930; complaints by George Arthur Ogilvie-Forbes, HM Representative, Baghdad, on behalf of the British Government, to the Government of Iraq about the hostile attitude of the Iraqi press towards the 1930 Treaty and the United Kingdom; the death of King Feisal [Faysal I] and the attitude of the new King, King Ghazi [Ghazi I]; and the desire of the Iraqi Government to publish certain explanatory notes on the Treaty of 1930.

Papers dated from March 1946 to February 1948 relate to the revision of the Treaty of 1930, and the signing of the new Treaty of Alliance of 1948. They include papers concerning the political consequences of the signing of the Treaty, including ‘rioting’ in Baghdad and the resignation of the Iraqi Prime Minister Saleh Jabr [Salih Jabr].

The file does not include any papers for the period January 1935 to February 1946.

The papers dated 1933 to 1934 largely consist of copy correspondence between Sir Francis Humphreys, HM Ambassador to Iraq, and the Foreign Office (including letters addressed to Sir John Simon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs). The papers dated 1946 to 1948 largely consist of correspondence and copy correspondence between the following: HM Embassy, Baghdad, and the Foreign Office; the India Office and the Board of Trade; the Commonwealth Relations Office and the governments of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Newfoundland, and Southern Rhodesia; and Saiyid Saleh Jabr, Prime Minister of Iraq, and Ernest Bevin, British Foreign Secretary.

The file also includes a copy of the Draft Anglo-Iraqi Treaty dated 9 January 1948, and a published copy of the Treaty of Alliance between the United Kingdom and Iraq, dated 15 January 1948.

The file includes a letter in Arabic from Mohamed Fadhil Al Jamali, Iraqi Ministry for Foreign Affairs, to Hugh Stonehewer-Bird, HM Ambassador to Iraq, 2 August 1946 (folio 74), for which there is an English translation.

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.