The Assyrian Affair of 1933 (I)

Khaldun S. Husry

doi:10.1017/S002074380002780X

The Assyrian Affair of 1933 (I)

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2009

Khaldun S. Husry

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‘History’, Ernest Toller once observed, ‘is the propaganda of the victors.’ Alas, it may often be so; but in the case of the Assyrian Affair of 1933 history has been decidedly the propaganda of the victims.

Type: Articles
Information: International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , April 1974 , pp. 161 - 176

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S002074380002780X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

^{page 162 note 1} Hourani, Albert, Minorities in the Arab World (London, 1947), p. 100.Google Scholar

^{page 162 note 2} House of Commons Debate, vol. 255, cols. 1796–7.Google Scholar

^{page 162 note 3} Al-Akha' al-Watani, 2 and 4 August 1931.Google Scholar

^{page 163 note 1} Lyell, Thomas, The Ins and Outs of Mesopotamia (London, 1923).Google Scholar By maintaining that Iraq left to itself ‘would become a Middle-East Bolshevist Power’, Lyell also anticipated some British arguments of the Cold War and Baghdad Pact era.

^{page 163 note 2} Ibid. p. 206.

^{page 163 note 3} House of Commons Debate, vol. 255, cols. 1775–1781.Google Scholar

^{page 163 note 4} Great Britain, Report on the Administration of Iraq for 1931, p. 15.Google Scholar

^{page 163 note 5} F.O. 371/16887, E 4913.Google Scholar

^{page 164 note 1} F.O. 371/16011, E 2127.Google Scholar

^{page 164 note 2} Great Britain, Report on the Administration of Iraq for 1931, p. 15.Google Scholar

^{page 164 note 3} Great Britain, Special Report on the Progress of Iraq, 1920–1931, p. 263.Google Scholar

^{page 164 note 4} al-Durra, Mahmud, al-Qadiya al-Kurdiya [The Kurdish Question], (Beirut, 1963), p. 84.Google Scholar

^{page 164 note 5} Great Britain, Report on the Administration of Iraq for 1931, pp. 15–16;Google ScholarHassani, , History of Cabinets, vol. III, pp. 129–32.Google Scholar

^{page 165 note 1} F.O. 371/16889.Google Scholar

^{page 165 note 2} Stafford, R. S., The Tragedy of the Assyrians (London, 1935), p. 70.Google Scholar

^{page 165 note 3} F.O. 371/16913.Google Scholar

^{page 165 note 4} Burgoyne, p. 318.Google Scholar

^{page 166 note 1} Main, Ernest, ‘Iraq and the Assyrians, 1932–1933’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xx (10 1933), p. 665.Google Scholar Main was the former editor of The Times of Mesopotamia and Baghdad Times, and the correspondent of the Daily Mail in Iraq.

^{page 166 note 2} Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xx, p. 161.Google Scholar

^{page 166 note 3} Stafford, p. 305.Google Scholar

^{page 166 note 4} The British Report on the Administration of Iraq, for 1924 (London, 1925), p. 36Google Scholar, does not give the number of Iraqis killed in this outbreak. Stafford, page 47, puts the number at fifty.

^{page 166 note 5} Stafford, p. 125.Google Scholar

^{page 167 note 1} Ibid. p. 106.

^{page 167 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 167 note 3} The following account is based mainly on ‘Brief for British Representatives in the League of Nations’, dated 1 September 1932, F.O. 371/16036, E 4736; ‘Iraq, Annual Report, 1932’, F.O. 371/16922; and Great Britain, Report on the Administration of Iraq, 1932 (London, 1933).Google Scholar

^{page 169 note 1} Humphrys, 14 July 1932, E 3512.Google Scholar

^{page 169 note 2} F. O. 371/16036, E 4812.Google Scholar

^{page 170 note 1} Minutes of the Twenty-Second Session of the Permanent Mandates Commission p. 375.Google Scholar

^{page 170 note 2} Stafford, p. 135.Google Scholar

^{page 171 note 1} Report of the Intelligence Branch of the Iraqi Army, dated 21 June 1933: File fa'/17.Google Scholar

^{page 171 note 2} Kedouri, The Chatham House Version, p. 247.Google Scholar

^{page 171 note 3} Government of Iraq, Correspondence Relating to Assyrian Settlement (Baghdad, 1934), p. 8, no. 8.Google Scholar This is known as the Iraqi Blue Book. The authenticity of the British documents which it contains is vouched for by Stafford, p. 154Google Scholar, and questioned by no one.

^{page 172 note 1} The Blue Book, p. 9, no. II.Google Scholar

^{page 172 note 2} Ibid. p. 17, no. 27.

^{page 172 note 3} Ibid. p. 29, no. 45.

^{page 172 note 4} Ibid. pp. 34–5, no. 54.

^{page 172 note 5} Stafford, p. 137.Google Scholar

^{page 172 note 6} Main, Ernest, Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society, vol. xx (10 1933), p. 666.Google Scholar

^{page 173 note 1} Memorandum, Situation in Iraq…Position on August 18th: F.O. 371/16887.Google Scholar

^{page 173 note 2} Stafford, pp. 135–6.Google Scholar

^{page 173 note 3} Ogilvie-Forbes to Sir John Simon, Received 25 July 1933: F.O. 37 1/16883.Google Scholar

^{page 174 note 1} Stafford, pp. 155–6.Google Scholar

^{page 174 note 2} F.O. 371/16891.Google Scholar

^{page 175 note 1} Memorandum by the Administrative Inspector, Mosul and Arbil Liwas, dated August 1933: F.O. 371/16866.Google Scholar

^{page 175 note 2} F.O. 371/16888, E 5045; F.O. 371/16889, E 5178; General Headlam's report: F.O. 371/16891.Google Scholar

^{page 176 note 1} Stafford, p. 158.Google Scholar

^{page 176 note 2} E.g. ‘Iraq, Annual Report, 1933’: F.O. 371/17871.Google Scholar

^{page 176 note 3} F.O. 371/16886, E 773;Google ScholarStafford, p. 164;Google Scholaral-Rawi, Ibrahim, Min al-Thawra al 'Arabiya al-Kubra ila al-'Iraq al-HadithDhikrayat [From the Great Arab Revolt to Modern Iraq, Memoirs], (Beirut, 1969), p. 153.Google Scholar

^{page 176 note 4} The preceding account of the engagement at Dayrbaun has been based mainly on Stafford's book and General Headlam's report in ‘Iraq, Annual Report, 1933’; and Ernest Main's article in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xx.Google Scholar

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