IOR/L/PS/12/2888

The file contains papers relating to the Iraqi armed forces, mostly concerning the introduction of conscription in Iraq under a system of National Service. The file also includes papers regarding the military policy of the Government of Iraq, and the concern of the chief of the Iraqi General Staff about the possibility of an attack on Iraq by Iran.

The papers mainly consist of correspondence between HM Embassy at Baghdad (Sir Francis Henry Humphrys, George Arthur Ogilvie-Forbes, Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, Sir Charles Harold Bateman), and the Foreign Office (Sir John Simon, Sir Samuel Hoare, Anthony Eden), copies of which were sent to the Under Secretary of State for India. The file also includes India Office Political Department minute papers.

In addition, the file includes a copy letter from the Chancery of HM Embassy, Baghdad, to the Political Agency at Kuwait (with a copy of the Kuwait Intelligence Summary for the period from 1 to 15 April 1939), and a letter from Trenchard Craven William Fowle, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire, to Roland Tennyson Peel of the India Office, regarding the moving of the Basra Garrison to Zubair.

The file includes a divider, which gives lists of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.