The Lost Peoples of the Middle East

Introduction
Kurdish Nationalists Protest Ill-treatment at Hands of Iraqi Government

Letter from Kurdish Leaders
Memorandum on the Kurdish Question

Assyrian Leaders Plea Case for an Independent Nation

The Kurdish Massacre on the Day of Allied Victory
Petition of Kurdish Tribes of Iran
Program of the Kurdish Hope Society

Campaign in Iraq Against the Kurds
British Advisor's View of the Kurdish Question
British Role in Iraqi Attempts to Resolve the Kurdish Problem
Communist Propaganda in the Kurdish Language
The Jewish Anti-Zionist League in Iraq
Kurds Protest Iraqi, Iranian and Turkish Efforts at Suppression of Kurdish Independence Aims

Proclamation of the Kurdish Rizgari Party

Proclamation of the Kurdish Rizgari Party
Disturbances in Kurdistan
The Dahngi Rasti Kurdish Society

Document on the Aims & Program of the Party

Manifesto of the Rizgari Kurdish Party
Racial Disturbances in Khuzistan
Abadan Strike News
Tribal War in Iraq
The Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP)

Appeal from the Party against imperialism
Provisions of the National Charter of the Kurdish Democratic Party
Program of the Kurdish Democratic Party
National Charter of the KDP (Iraq)
Declaration of the Congress of the KDP
Appeal of the Congress of the KDP

Manifesto of the Kurdish Democratic Army
Protest of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan

Introduction

A widely held view is that the Middle East consists of a vast arid region populated by Moslem Arabs which fronts on a small, isolated enclave of Jews known as Israel. Few realize that the Middle East is not a racially homogenous region, but rather a hodgepodge of cultural and racial diversity. This region includes Assyrians, Caucasian Christians, Mennonites, Turks, Armenians, Druze, Oriental Jews, Kurds and a host of lesser minorities. Instead of one race, one language, one religion, the Middle East embraces a vast patchwork of diverse peoples and cultures. And these pockets of ethnic groups are fragmented and ever-changing, frequently divided by artificially-created national boundaries.

As this book is being written, the most widely heard Middle Eastern issue centers on the plight of the Palestinians. Everywhere one reads of their demands for freedom and an independent homeland. Their cause is debated regularly at the United Nations, and Palestinian diplomats are welcomed on par with the diplomats of established nations in many of the governments of the world. Yet, the Palestinians are really but one of many minorities in this region who have been struggling for essentially the same goal for centuries. But what do we hear or read of the sufferings and hopes of the others? Who stands of the world stage, pleading the human rights of these peoples? Essentially no one. Not only have their sufferings and goals been largely ignored by the world press, but their delegates have been regularly ignored in such seemingly liberal institutions as the League of Nations, the United Nations and the World Court.

It is not the intent of this writer to deny the rights and asporations of the Palestinians. The right of an ethnic or national homeland is one of the great promises of modern civilized man. Still one wonders whether there would be a Palestinian issue without the long-standing hatred between Moslem and Jew. Should the Palestinians have been forced from their land of birth by a Moslem rather than a Jewish state, it is doubtful that the issue would have mushroomed into the crisis proportions that exist today. Indeed, there would probably be no more of a "Palestinian Question," than there is now a Druze Question, a Kurd Question or an Armenian Question.

The plight of minorities in the Middle East, as elsewhere, then fixes not so much on world humanitarian values and the issue of human rights as it does on power, hatred, fear, ignorance and greed. The minorities exist solely as a means of achieving another end. They serve as a tool, to be used, then discarded. Such minorities are exploited by world powers, by their own host nations, by political forces of both left and right, and by those religious groups whose purposes are clouded by their own deep fears and hatred. So it is in the Middle East, where the minorities serve only as pawns to be used by the larger and more powerful groups. This has been their fate in the past, and it promises to be so in the future.

The purpose of this collection of documents on Middle Eastern minority groups is to shed some light on the trials, sufferings, and seemingly hopeless aspirations of these peoples. The work is necessarily incomplete and uneven. Since the research was limited to the post World War 11 period, many informative materials from earlier years were excluded. And since all materials were taken from previously classified materials in the U.S. National Archives, nothing after 1950 is available, inasmuch as those documents have not as yet been declassified. Admittedly there is a wealth of data wanting which would have proved of value lo scholars interested in the more recent years.

The largest body of information in this collection treats with the struggle of the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and Iran, but particularly in Iraq. And we see largely only one view - that imparted to us in writings of United States diplomatic and intelligence agents. In spite of these limitations, a number of truths surface. Most paramount is the cruel history fate and geography has laid upon these peoples. The past, present and future of the Kurds is laden with subjugation, humiliation, exploitation and pain - wrought by forces which they little understood and over which they exerted no control. In World War I the Kurds sided with the Allies, only to be betrayed by them as well as by the august League of Nations. Later the Kurds supported the British; they were betrayed a second time. In World War II the Kurds aided the Allies. And again they were betrayed and ignored. Their appeals to the United Nations went unheeded; their delegates were dismissed and forgotten.

Ultimately the Kurdish leaders turned to the Russians. In the early post-war years the Turks, Iraqis and Iranians turned back to the course of active suppression and military extermination of the Kurdish minorities within their national borders. These efforts were encouraged and abetted by the British. The United States stood unconcerned on the sidelines. Only the Russians and communists seemed sympathetic to Kurdish pleas. And once again the Kurds were exploited and betrayed.

Even today the struggle of the Kurds continues. They wage a relentless war against the Iranian Government. Supported by Iraq - in seeming contradiction of their years of open suppression of the Kurds within their territories - Kurdish men, women and children continue to fight. They fight though most realize the war can end only in grief. The Kurds may win the battles, but never the war - and surely not the peace. At best the Kurds can plan for assimilation; at worst extermination. And for many Kurdish patriots it is one in the same.

There are in this collection documents on the struggle of other minorities in the Middle East as well. One interesting document spells out the plight of the Assyrians, even less known to the outside world than the Kurds. They are no less fortunate. Then too there are materials, admittedly limited, on the anti-Zionist Jews of Iraq, the racial and economic strife in the Khuzistan portion of Iran, and tribal conflicts within Moslem factions. Always there is evidence of regular efforts made by the Russians to exploit these tensions for their own ends.

This editor is the first to admit that this book does little more than scratch the surface of the minority problems in the Middle East. Still it is hoped that the work will serve to be of value to both student and scholar alike. It may serve to heighten the awareness of the student in a generally unrecognized and widely ignored issue shaping historical forces in the Middle East. In addition, the materials contained herein may themselves prove a valuable point of departure for the serious scholar of Middle Eastern affairs, providing him with a base for further research.

All documents included are transcribed faithfully from previously . confidential and secret records in the archives of the United States Government. The sources and file numbers are included in the transcriptions. Only the actual signatures of the authors, stamps affixed later by various governmental agencies and like materials have been excluded. Finally, an index has been provided by the editor to facilitate the reader's search for specific subjects.

Kurdish Nationalists Protest Ill-treatment at Hands of Iraqi Government

SUBJECT: Kurdish Nationalists Protest Against Ill-treatment at the Hands of the Iraqi Government.

I have the honor to report that during the past week the Legation has received two communications from Kurdish sources complaining of the unfortunate position of the Kurds in Iraq. The first of these, attached as enclosure No. 1, was a letter written in pencil addressed to the Prime Minister of Iraq and signed by the "Notabilities and Aghas of Arbil". This letter, which was poorly written and in Arabic, complained of the unjust policy which the present and preceding Iraqi Governments had been pursuing toward the Kurds and accused the Government of oppressing the Kurdish people. The second communication, attached as enclosure No. 2, was in the form of an unsigned memorandum written in English, giving a history of the Kurdish people, a summary of their past and present grievances, and urging the great Powers to redress past wrongs done to the Kurds and to ensure for the Kurds a place among the free nations of the world. According to Kurdish nationalist sources, the ideas expressed in these two communications reflect in general the views of the great majority of the Iraqi Kurds.

Politically minded nationalist Kurds apparently feel that the time is now propitious to bring to the attention of the great Powers the fact that the Kurdish people do not want to be forgotten at the Peace Conference; that they are oppressed and discriminated against in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq; and that they should be granted the status of an independent nation. Many of these Kurds have expressed the opinion that if the Kurdish nation is not granted full independence, the Kurds of Iraq should at least be accorded some form of self rule and local autonomy so that they might themselves be responsible for the solution of their own problems and be in a position to eliminate the causes of their present grievances which include: insufficient schools and teachers; poor communications; deplorable health conditions; low prices and inadequate marketing facilities for agricultural produce; inefficient and dishonest administration; the failure of the central government to spend in Kurdistan as much money as it takes out in taxes.

The basic grievance of the Iraqi Kurds is apparently that they do not want to be a minority and that in general they dislike, distrust, and hold in contempt the Arab government in Baghdad. This Kurdish distrust of the Arab government of Baghdad is increased by the presence in Kurdistan of many Iraqi police and army posts. Moreover, the behavior of the Iraqi Government officials in Kurdistan and the obvious alarm with which reports of the movements of Mulla Mustafa or members of. his tribe are received in Baghdad government circles have convinced most Kurds, and especially the Mulla, that the Arabs fear them, and this serves only to make the attitude of the Kurds in general more truculent and uncompromising.

The mentality of Baghdad government officials regarding security in Kurdistan was well demonstrated two weeks ago. The following incident was related to a member of this Legation staff by Lieutenant Colonel Daghestani who has been in command of a battalion of troops and a battalion of police in the Kurdish mountain village of Acra: Daghestani had come back to Baghdad on leave. He had been in the city only a few hours when he received word from the Minister of Defence that one hundred and fifty of Mulla Mustafa's Barzani tribesmen were on the move and menacing the Acra army and police garrisons and that he should immediately return to his post to deal with any eventuality. Daghestani pointed out to the Minister of Defence that the Acra garrisons which were composed of two battalions of eight hundred men each would be well able to deal with any situation which might be precipitated by the presence of these tribesmen in the Acra area; that moreover he considered it probable that the report on the number of tribesmen "menacing" his men must have been exaggerated. Nevertheless Daghestani was ordered back to Acra. On his arrival there he found that, in fact, twelve of Mulla Mustafa's men had been sent by their chief to inquire about stolen mules. Twelve mountaineers surrounding a force of eight hundred troops and eight hundred police - this was the danger which had compelled his immediate return to his post. According to Daghestani, this incident caused considerable comment among the inhabitants of the area.

Several Kurdish nationalists, including a Deputy and two army officers, one of whom had been recently retired from the Iraqi Army for suspected Kurdish nationalist activities, confided to a member of the Legation staff that they had reliable information to the effect that the Iraqi Army was planning to move against Mulla Mustafa late in April and that in such an event most of the Kurdish Aghas would unite under the leadership of the Mulla, who, they insisted, was well supplied with arms and ammunition which he had stolen or captured during the past year. Moreover the Mulla was prepared for such an attack and had picketed his men in strategic defensive positions.

According to a British Intelligence source, both British and Iraqi officials have recently assured Kurdish leaders that the Iraqi Government was not contemplating any aggressive move against the Kurds and that movements of Iraqi troops and police in the north were merely a part of spring maneuvers and should not be construed by the Mulla or other chieftains to have any sinister meaning for them. This same source also stated that in the near future the Iraqi Government would grant a full pardon to Mulla Mustafa and to all those who had participated in the armed revolt against the Iraqi Government last year. In addition to this reported conciliatory move, the Government has passed legislation which will give the Kurdish areas a considerable measure of fiscal and administrative autonomy as soon as the provisions of this legislation can be put into effect, probably not before a years time.

Letter from Kurdish Leaders

Enclosure no. 1 to Despatch No. 674 of March 22, 1945, from the American Legation, Baghdad.

We address you in the name of just humanity and democracy which are desired by every person with a living conscience, particularly by the weaker peoples, like the noble Kurdish people, who, unlike the other peoples in the world, are still denied their national rights. We therefore invoke the Iraqi Constitution and appeal to you and to your Cabinet, despite the accusations which are made against us as a result of the policies of the successive Cabinets, which policies are inimical to our national aspirations. For example, when Rashid Ali's Government declared war on the British, every nationalist Kurd was regarded as a British spy and agent by that Government. Later, when things returned to normal, the Kurds were accused of harboring Nazi ideologies and of being of German origin. Many harmful rumors were thus spread against us. When the Nazi threat receded from the East, we were regarded, even during your regime, as first class Communists. You and your Government have said that all this would not weaken your faith and would not be considered as a blemish by those who will shape the future of the world, lay down the new world order, and create homelands for those who do not have them. It is inevitable that the hopes of the oppressed Kurds should be realized, even in this era which is called the age of light, so that we might sooner or later attain our aims. We warn you that you should change the unjust policy which your Government has adopted towards the Kurds during the past six months, without caring to determine the truth and trying before the law the previous Cabinet which betrayed the Kurdish cause for the sake of promoting the Iraqi Arab Government - "The Iraqi Arab Government" as the press calls it and which conveys the views of the consecutive Governments in Iraq.

The injustices which your present administration. has committed against the Kurds have been unprecedented since the creation of the state of Iraq. You have imprisoned, detained in concentration camps, and exiled Kurdish people and transferred hundreds of officials from the extreme North to the extreme South. These practices have even been extended to simple soldiers who know nothing but obedience to the colors and whose only means of support for their families and children is their meagre salary in these times of grave economic circumstances. Who is responsible, one wonders, for the calamities of these innocent men. Let Your Excellency and the enemies of the Kurdish cause realize that the armed Kurds, who have been called Jews, have taken a lesson from their unarmed brethren by avenging those who are ill-treated and whose rights are denied them. Moreover, the Government is liberally annexing Kurdish areas such as the Qaraj district, situated in the heart of Kurdistan - (these areas have been inhabited by the Kurds for many a generation) - to Mosul Liwa which is Arab. Is not this instance an open injustice which is contrary to every law and to human conscience? Is not this considered as blatant discrimination between the interests of the Kurdish and the Arab peoples both of whom enjoy the same rights in the eyes of the Constitution? Will the conscience of your Cabinet accept that the Kurds be ill-treated and their homeland usurped from them for the purpose of furthering the ends of the Ministers and the relatives of Mustafa Al-Umari, the Minister of Interior? Shall the Kurds remain in this position? Will not history chronicle this advice to you and to your Cabinet? Therefore, the Kurds must never forget those heinous acts which the Pachachi Cabinet is committing and which the Kurds have never experienced before, even during the dark days of the Ottoman regime. All Kurds living in Arbil Liwa, which was bequeathed to them by their forbears, must preserve their honor and defend the Qaraj area morally and physically to the last, since the place has fallen into the hands of anarchists who do not respect the law.

Memorandum on the Kurdish Question

Enclosure No. 2 to Despatch No. 674 of March 22, 1945, from American Legation, Baghdad.

It comprises the greater part of the mountains ranging from the Black Sea near the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf as well as fertile plains to the West.

Kurdistan is inhabited by one nation, the Kurds. Numbering over eight million, they are a courageous hard-working race, who count loyalty, toleration and love of liberty among their dearest traditions. Since the dawn of history they have maintained their national existence in their country.

The Kurds are distinct from their neighbours in race, language and culture. They lie between and separate from each other and the Turks (to the West), the Russians (to the North-East), the Persians (to the East) and the Arabs (to the South).

Kurdistan, which is clearly a harmonious geographical, economic and national entity will inevitably play an important part in the Middle East of the future. Placed at the strategic keypoint between the West and the East, it should be permitted to become a self-supporting community, a stable political factor, instead of being the meeting-point of conflicting interests, as at present.

In Turkey, Iran and Iraq, where the Kurds constitute powerful minorities, their response to measures aiming at compulsory assimilation has shown that all attempts to find a solution to the Kurdish problem in that direction are doomed to failure.

Apart from a possible loss of prestige, Turks, Iranians and Arabs alike can only benefit by facing the fact that they cannot absorb the Kurdish nation, and by acquiescing in steps calculated to change a troublesome minority into a friendly neighbour.

To the west: A line starting from the Kurd-Dagh (Syria), running in a northerly direction through the regions of Killis, Marash, Albistan, and Divrik to the Kelkit river. South-West of this line, there are scattered Kurdish settlements as far as the Gulf of Alexandrette.

To the North: A line following the Kelkit river, running east through the towns of Baiburt and Olty to Kars.

North of this line scattered Kurdish settlements reach the Black Sea near Trebizond.

To the East: A line starting from Kars in a southeasterly direction, then running along the western shore of Lake Urmia, Luristan, the Bakhtiar country to Sehneh and Kermanshah.

To the South: From Southern Luristan a line running north west through Khanakin and Kifri to the Jebel Hamrin; from there to the west, south of Mount Singar to the Euphrates in Jerablus.

Before the First World War, Kurdistan was divided between Turkey and Persia, with a. small Kurdish community in Russia. The Peace Conference and the various Treaties with Turkey resulted in a Kurdistan divided between Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Russia. In Russia there are only about 160,000 Kurds, who enjoy full cultural liberty, with the active support of the Government.

The southern strip of Western Turkish Kurdistan was included in the French mandated territory of Syria.

The Turko-Iraq boundary "broke into two parts the heart of historic Kurdistan . . . it destroyed the chances of an evolution of the Kurdish tribes as a nationality for generations to come". (Encycl. Br. 14th Ed., art. Mosul).

Kurdistan is mainly mountainous but contains large and fertile plains and valleys. Such are the plain of Kiarbekr, Passen, Mush, Kharput, Jezireh, the valleys of Tigris and Euphrates and their tributaries.

Kurdistan is chiefly an agricultural country, producing all kinds of cereals, flax, tobacco, sesame, all kinds of vegetables, almonds, figs, nuts, olives, apples, pears, apricots, peaches, prunes, cherries, grapes, pomegranates, mulberries, etc.

Mineral resources have been little exploited, with the exception of copper near Kiarbekr and petroleum in southern Kurdistan. Iron, tin, coal, sulphur, lead and. silver are also present in large quantities.

There are several textile factories in the large centres and home industry is widespread: textiles (wool, liner. and silk), rugs, leather-work, silversmith's work, tools (iron, steel and copper).

About 20 towns average from 30 to 50,000 inhabitants. The most important are: in Turkey: Diarbekr, Mardin, Kharput, Maltia, Erzerum, Erzinjan, Mush, Van, Bitlis, Khozat, Maden, Jeziret ibn Omar; in Iran: Sanjbulagh, Saqqiz, Sehneh, Kermanshah; in Iraq: Sulaimaniya, Kirkuk, Zakho, Ruwandiz, Koi Sanjak, etc.

No trustworthy attempts have been made either by the Turkish or the Iranian Governments to arrive at an exact census of their Kurdish subjects; any information published by them reflects the tendency to minimize the Kurdish problem. The figures given below are an approximate, but certainly not excessive estimate.

With the exception of small groups beyond the various borders, the population is homogenous and the minorities are few in number; they can be estimated as follows:

It should be noted that throughout the centuries the Kurds have maintained good relations with their Christian neighbours, closely cooperating with them in resisting oppressors.

As a result of large-scale deportations by Turks and Persians there are large Kurdish colonies outside Kurdistan, in the heart of Turkey and Persia. These are not included in our estimates.

The Kurds belong by race and language to the Indo-European stock. All attempts made in recent times by Turks, Persians and Arabs to impose their languages upon the Kurds have met with failure. Even in towns the Kurds continue to use their own language at home, except in the most important centres in Turkey, where compulsion has rendered the use of Turkish dominant. The indomitable will of the Kurds to retain their own language is shown by the harshness of the measures taken for its suppression. In Turkey, the use of the Kurdish language is forbidden by laws. With the exception of a few Kurdish schools in one region in Iraq, schools in Kurdish villages in that country and in Syria are conducted in Arabic, though the only Arabic-speaking person in the village is the teacher. In four different countries Kurdish children are compelled to get their education in languages which they will never use in later life.

In Iraq and in Syria, thanks to the presence of the Mandatory Powers, private Kurdish cultural activity is not prohibited. In these countries and in Russia there are several Kurdish publications, among others the periodicals HAWAR in Syria and RIYA TAZE in Russia; these, and about 150 volumes printed during the last 20 years, all make use of the Latin alphabet.

With the exception of a small number who retain an offshoot of the old Zoroastrian religion (the Yezidis), the Kurds are Mohammedans, mostly of the Sunnite sect. They are pervaded by the old humanitarian principles of their former Zoroastrian belief, many traces of which are left. They are tolerant and in this respect very different from their other Mohammedan neighbours.

Turks, Persians and Arabs demand the assimilation of the Kurds on the ground of similarity of religion. But the actual driving-force in these countries is intolerant nationalism, and their effort forcibly to assimilate the Kurds is gaining momentum with the growth of their chauvinist tendencies.

There is evidence in Sumerian records that, as far back as 2,000 B.C., Kurdish tribes occupied the heart of Kurdistan. Waging constant war with their powerful neighbours - Babylonians, Hittites and Assyrians - they never submitted for long to any conqueror. They helped Cyrus to conquer Niniveh and Babylon. During the Achaemian Persian Empire, they enjoyed privileges and were entrusted with the guard of the Zoroastrian temples. Xenophon during his retreat encountered opposition from the Kurds. The Seleucids were successfully resisted and the Kurds were prominent under the Sassanids. Later came the invasion of Arab and Turkish tribes, covering the country with ruins. Saladin the Great; the chivalrous opponent of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, was a Kurd who united most of the Kurdish tribes under his rule.

Modern history sets in with the occupation of Kurdistan by Sultan Selim I, the first Ottoman Caliph, in the realization of his Pan-Islamic policy. Helped by the Kurdish historian Idris-i-Bidliss, Selim obtained the cooperation of the Kurdish principalities in his successful war against the Persians. This cooperation was later established on a permanent basis by an agreement whereby the Kurdish princes recognized the suzerainty of the Sultan, retaining their sovereign rights within their country. Thenceforward the Kurds participated in all the wars of the Sultans as loyal vassals.

But the evolution of Turkey from a confederation of vassal states under Ottoman leadership into a National State had a fatal repercussion on the Turko-Kurdish relations. A gradual infringement of Kurdish rights, at first directed against the Kurdish princes and later, in ever-increasing measure, against the Kurdish nation as a whole, led to the struggle which continues until the present day.

The first phase, the destruction of the sovereign Kurdish principalities, lasted until 1847; that year marked the end of the last Kurdish principality which fell after resisting the Turkish armies for 15 years. Fierce revolts broke out in 1879, in 1886 (repressed by joint Turko-Persian action), in 1889 and in 1913.

After the Young Turk revolution, and still more since the Kemalist regime, the Turks have increased their efforts to assimilate or destroy the Kurdish nation. Furthermore, since 1925, there has been close cooperation between the Turkish and Persian Governments in their policy towards the Kurds. In that year, Kurdish leaders were massacred by the Turks and imprisoned by the Persians. Iraq joined the Turko-Persian convention by the treaty of Saadabad.

The new policy found expression in hitherto unknown measures. In Turkey the complete prohibition of the Kurdish language and large-scale deportations resulted in three insurrections in 1925 - 28, in 1930 and in 1937 - 38, which were of such a magnitude that the Turks had to bring whole Army Corps and aircraft into action.

In Iraq oppressive attempts by the Arabs have also led to revolts in recent years.

The Great War 1914 - 18 was a period of particular hardship in Turkey, not only to the Kurds who perished en masse in the course of deportations, but. also to other minorities which were practically annihilated.

The Allied Powers at the Peace Conference were fully aware that a solution to the Kurdish problem was necessary, and the Kurdish problem was necessary, and the Kurdish Nation was represented by a delegate, General Sherif Pasha.

In the Treaty of Sevres, which was signed on the 10th of August, 1920, the Great Powers and Turkey recognised the fundamental rights of the Kurdish Nation (Treaty of Sevres, Section III, Kurdistan, Art. 62, 63 and 64). Article 64 recognizes the rights of the Turks to constitute an independent nation and their right to unite different parts of Kurdistan.

The Kemalist coup de force was ratified by the Great Powers in the Treaty of Lausanne; an indifferent world left divided Kurdistan to be the prey of the nationalist ambitions of Turkey, Persia and the Arabs.

The continual and increasing pressure brought upon the Kurds during the last 20 years in order to suppress them as a nation has utterly failed. The only result of the efforts to do away with one of the oldest nations in the world has been endless misery, destruction and bloodshed.

After the conclusion of the present world-war, none of the victorious nations can remain indifferent to the establishment of permanent peace in the Middle East. But such peace will not be established as long as a strong, tenacious nation, at one of the most important strategic points of the world, remains the prey of destructive powers, a cause of or a pretext for future conflagrations.

It is difficult to forecast the exact picture of the final form to which the restoration of the Kurd nation will lead. But the first stage of the said restoration cannot offer less to the Kurdish people than the reaffirmation of rights which were already outlined 20 years ago in the Treaty of Sevres. The great democratic powers have failed after the last war to prevent their efforts to restore Kurdish rights from being wiped out by force and political intrigue. Similar failures have forced the Allies to take up arms once again for the cause of Justice. This must unfailingly lead to the permanent redress of one of the most flagrant wrongs witnessed by history, by giving to the Kurds their place among free nations.

Assyrian Leaders Plea Case for an Independent Nation

I have the honor to attach hereto a memorandum on the "Assyrian Problem" which was given to an American citizen temporarily resident in Baghdad, by a group of Assyrian leaders for safe transmittal to Mr. Henderson a few days prior to the Minister's departure for the United States. The Legation has been reliably informed that "this statement of the Assyrian case is the fruit of long consultation and is the final agreement of the most intelligent Assyrians of Iraq who would be the leaders of their people in the immediate future."

The memorandum describes at length the past services in the two world wars which the Assyrians have rendered the British; asks that the Assyrians be considered a separate and distinct nation and pleads that they be allowed to appoint representatives from Assyrian communities in various countries to present their case to the United Nations.

on the basis of historical fact and of such information as has been available to this Legation through conversations with trained observers, with Assyrian leaders and with Iraqis, the Assyrian problem in Iraq may be summed up as follows:

Not the least of the causes which has given rise to the hatred between the Assyrians and the Iraqi Moslem Arabs has been the active part which the Assyrians have taken in both world wars and on other occasions in support of the British; in 1914 against the Turks and the Iraqi Irregulars of the Turkish army, in 1923 against the Kurds, and in 1941 against the Regular Iraqi Army. The Assyrian Levies, numbering about 800, inflicted heavy losses on the Iraqi Army when the latter attacked the British airfield at Habbaniya in May 1941; moreover the Levies murdered many of the Iraqi prisoners who had fallen into their hands during the 1941 rebellion. The families of those Iraqi soldiers who were killed on these occasions are said to feel a personal grudge against the Assyrians which they are determined to pay off as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

As the Department is aware, the Assyrian Nestorians under Mar-Shamoon, soon after Iraq became an independent country, demanded semi-autonomy for the Assyrian people of Iraq. In the Assyrian revolt which followed the refusal of the Iraqi Government to grant a special status to the Assyrians and the attempt of the Iraqi Government to disarm them, fearful atrocities were committed by both sides, so that the mutual hatred which had existed up to that time was further intensified. The Levies are better dressed and higher paid than the Iraqi soldiers on whom they look with contempt. The Levies strut through the streets of Baghdad with feathers stuck in their wide brimmed hats and the Iraqi troops, who make a poor showing in comparison, naturally feel resentful.

Up to 1941, the Assyrian people in Iraq were not unified and there was considerable difference of opinion between the Nestorians, who were Assyrian nationalists and strongly believed in the necessity for Assyrian autonomy, and the Protestants (non-Nestorians) who were less inclined toward striving for the recognition of the Assyrian state and in general believed that it might be possible for the Assyrians to remain in Iraq as loyal Iraqi citizens. Following the Iraqi rebellion of 1941, however, when the Assyrian Levies, as pointed out above, played such an important part in saving the position of the British in this area and in frustrating the plans of the Iraqi Government and Army, the two Assyrian religious sects became more closely united in the face of the greatly intensified Arab Moslem hatred against them and in spite of efforts by the Iraqi Government to disrupt Assyrian unity by subsidizing one or more non-Nestorian leaders. At the present time-it is safe to say that the overwhelming majority of the Assyrian people in Iraq feel that they must bury their differences and work together; that the Iraqis in general and the Iraqi Army in particular do not distinguish between the Assyrian Nestorians and Protestants; that they must appeal as a unified people to the British and to other great powers for protection and guarantee of future safety.

The Assyrians have unquestionably rendered valuable services to the British and their Allies since 1914. It is generally conceded that the Assyrian Levies, who bore the brunt of the attack by the bulk of the Iraqi Army against the Habbaniya airfield in May 1941, saved that highly strategic point of British resistance, and thereby probably averted a major catastrophe to the British position in the entire Middle East at a time when German fortunes were at their highest point. The attached memorandum appears to over-exaggerate the aid which the Assyrians have given the British and Allies during the past thirty years, but the fact remains that the Assyrians feel, and not without justification, that in return for the loyalty which they have shown in England's dark hours, they can reasonably expect that the British and other members of the United Nations should give a hearing to the Assyrian problem and bring about some solution which would guarantee the future safety and integrity of the Assyrian nation.

It is the general. consensus among the Assyrians that if the British withdraw their forces from Iraq, without making more effective provision for the safety of their Assyrian Allies than those guarantees made through the League of Nations in 1932, the Iraqis will in some way wreak vengeance on the Assyrians and will try to extinguish what is left of that. people as a national group in this country.

Many of the Assyrians who have considerable property in Iraq would be loath to leave this country and some of them have expressed the opinion that they would be glad to remain if they were assured of protection by the British; this group is only a small minority, however, as most Assyrian leaders apparently feel that they could not count, in the long run, on British protection.

In view of the fact that the Kurds are at present agitating for independent status, there has been some talk of incorporating the Iraqi Assyrians into a new sovereign Kurdish state (see this Legation's dispatch No. 697 of April 10, 1945). Inasmuch as the Kurds and the Assyrians have never demonstrated warm feelings of friendship for one another in the past - in fact it was the Assyrian Levies who in 1923 defeated the Kurdish Sheikh Mahmoud, thereby destroying for many years the hopes for Kurdish independence and saving Kurdistan for Iraq - and as it is extremely problematical that there will ever be an independent Kurdistan, this solution to the Assyrian problem appears to be academic.

Most observers here who are familiar with the Assyrian question have said that the best solution to this problem would be to move all Iraqi Assyrians to some other country in which at least the majority of the population is Christian. Up until recently there has been talk of settling the Assyrians in Syria, but since the recognition of the independence of that country, many Assyrians have expressed the opinion that if they moved to Syria, their position would not undergo a fundamental change in view of the fact that they would still be a Christian minority in a predominantly Moslem country. Some of the Assyrians who had moved to Syria have even returned to Iraq.

Historical events during this century have created situations which have made the Assyrian. people the ideal tool for British Imperial policy. The Iraqis, who resent "British imperialism" and the special position of the British in Iraq, naturally hold the Assyrians at least partly responsible for the implementation of this British policy. The Assyrians, therefore, feel that emmigration from Iraq or other dominantly Moslem areas is a necessity.

The Assyrian Problem

Enclosure No. 1 to Despatch No. 698, dated April 11, 1945 from the American Legation at Baqhdad.

From all public speeches and official statements made by the Allied Statesmen since the beginning of the present war the declared policy of the Governments of all the United Nations is understood to be cooperation to establish and maintain permanent international peace and security. The Allied Powers have declared their belief in essentiality of establishing competent international institutions for finding practical solutions for world's social, economic and political problems so as to remove all future causes of wars it is with this particular object that the Allied Powers are utilizing the services of all experts at their disposal. for preparation of comprehensive plans in order to carry out disarmament and complete destruction of aggressive militarism of states whose armed forces have supported unprovoked aggressive policy of their Governments who aimed at annihilation, enslavement and domination of small and defenceless nations and peoples. It is also intended to eliminate Fascism, Nazism and all similar regimes together with their sympathisers, satellites and collaborationists who supported Axis policy and to replace them by peaceful democratic Governments. It is also intended to make careful consideration of and methods to compensate all damages done by wars of aggressive nations. It is desired to relieve the oppressed and destitute people immediately after their liberation to arrange for their repatriation, restoration of their essential services, to help them in their urgently needed agricultural and industrial productions. Above all to extend recognition of rights of both small and great nations and peoples and to form new entities out of the peoples who have proved their loyalty, wisdom and goodwill to enjoy sovereign rights and equality thus putting in practical practice the high ideals embodied in the Atlantic Charter and subsequent allied declaration.

Here we humbly present the case of a brave, loyal, eligible and most deserving people who once were a great and advanced nation of about forty millions and a powerful Empire whose contribution to science and culture are numerous together with its propagation of Christianity, educating and enlightening services throughout the Continent of Asia are unsurpassed. But as a result of twenty six centuries of aresions [sic] and persecutions has been reduced to a few hundreds of thousands.

In order to end their sufferings they accepted the Allies proposals to join them in World War One while realising the heavy sacrifices which would be demanded by them by fighting the Central powers and their Satellites. They joined the Allies and fought gallantly making every possible sacrifice, proportionately greater than any of the other allied nations. Having performed their part and as a result losing their Autonomous political status within the Ottoman Empire and their position as a Millet in Persia (Iran) sacrificing our homeland all our movable and immovable properties and more than half of our men, women, and children who were either killed on the battle fields or massacred in cold blood. Having thus born the heavy expense of the war but performing our part in that great and momentous struggle for the final allied victory.

After the armistice when the Assyrians appeared before the Allied Tribunals demanding a settlement for their claims in accordance with the Allied promises we were unfortunately refused a hearing. It was decided that our ancient fatherland (Assyria) which was wrested from the Ottoman Empire not without the valuable blood of our sons, to be renamed Iraq and be given to the war time enemies of the allies - the Mesopotamian Arabs - who as subjects of the Sultan had fought against the Allied Army ferociously both as regular soldiers, as volunteer Arab tribal hordes and, as Moslems. Contrary to all approved principles of justice and humanity these enemies were treated as friends and given the country a constitutional government and independence. Whereas we, the Assyrians, were refused direct representation and treated as enemies and left no alternative but either to starve or become serfs to our former enemies. In spite of our continuous appeals and protestations as to the future treatment which we expected that would be accorded to us by our new and unfriendly masters, no attention was paid to us. Later oppressive social, economic, administrative and political measures were immediately adapted against us intended to bring about gradual but complete annihilation of this loyal people who had thrown their lot with the Allied Powers. Living was made so intolerable as a result of the measures adapted against us and as previously foretold they culminated in the 1933 massacre of peaceful loyal Assyrian serfs living in the villages of their new masters. This act was committed by regular Iraqi Armed Forces under direct instructions from the Central Government. After we brought the case before the League of Nations the sole excuse for this act of barbarism committed against poor, hungry, and unemployed Assyrians who had entered Syria in search of employment, food and lands for settlement and cultivation where they could live in peace and secure from aggression. and to escape serfdom, destitution and. oppression, was described by the Iraqi delegates as an unexpected excesses to have taken place as a result of stabilizing measures adapted by his Government for maintenance of internal security. When the League realized the real position of the Assyrians once more reviewed the Assyrian problem and the council decided that it was necessary to find a reasonable and humane solution of the Assyrian problem. Unfortunately before any thing practical could have been done the Axis powers presented and engaged the League with new and more complicated problems. When the present war broke out in 1933 no permanent and reasonable solution had been found. The preliminary steps taken by the League had resulted in dividing the Assyrians between two countries of Iraq and Syria. Whereas their other oppressed brethren in Iran and those who had so kindly been given refuge in Russia and United States and other similar smaller communities all over the world were awaiting a practical solution where they would be allowed to join their brethren and live in peace and secure from molestations.

During 1941 when the existence of the British Empire and of the whole civilized world was threatened by the aggressive and formidable armies of the Axis Powers who had defeated the allied armies in the west. and southern Europe and occupied Crete and when the German and Fascist. Armies were marching on Egypt, threatening the foothold of the allied armies in the Middle and Near East suddenly Iraqi Government - enemies of the Allies during the first World War and superficial friends of the British during the period between the two wars joined hands with the Axis Powers stabbed the British in the back and invited the Fascist and Nazi Air Forces to come in and help them to push the British out of Iraq so as to enable them to place at the disposal of the Axis Powers all their resources including food supplies, important aerodromes, all lines and means of communications above all the Oil Fields so important to the Allied Armies, Navies and Air Forces. At this historic moment - the Assyrians allies of the former war though treated as enemies during the period. between the two wars - seeing this act of treachery declared themselves on the side of Great Britain and her Allies, risking their very existence at a time when even the possibilities of the Allied recovery was doubtful, fought gallantly and fanatically thus winning the first Allied victory in this war over the Fascist and Axis Air Forces and the armies of their Iraqi Satellites at Habbaniyah and Fillujah in May 1941, thus forcing the Air Forces to evacuate Iraq at the same time defeating the Iraq Army and Arab tribal hordes bringing about armistice thus securing the whole of the resources of Iraq for the future use of the Allies. How could any other people have made such a noble and historical decision and under such circumstances "A NATION IS A NATION NO MATTER SMALL OR GREAT".

Had the Assyrians acted otherwise as many peoples acted and would have acted under such circumstances, it is almost certain that the Allies would have been deprived of the use of vital war means and materials and hew long it would have taken and at what cost to regain them it is a matter for experts to decide. Besides the Assyrians ignored all war time profits and on the request of the British Authorities volunteered in thousands and joined the Royal Air Force ground forces at a meagre rate of three pounds per mensem and served on the most difficult and important duties of guarding the Aerodromes, ammunition dumps, other important war materials and all lines of communications in the Middle and Near Eastern countries and among internally hostile public of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Palestine, and in Cyprus. They have since taken active part in the Mediterranean and Southern European theatres of war and have crowned themselves in glory by making every sacrifice with one and only object, to be rewarded by a home where they can settle, be secured work and live in peace and have freedom of speech and worship and freedom from want under a Government in whom they will have confidence as promised by Atlantic Charter.

On the other hand the Assyrians in Iran placed at the disposal of the Allied powers a large volume of heavy efficient and reliable mechanical transport for transportation of most important war materials from the Persian Gulf. They also placed at the disposal of the Allies and served in all capacities where they could be of proven use to the Allied War effort.. It is needless to mention that when the Germans were invading Caucasus thousands of Assyrians volunteered to join the Red Army and play their part in stemming the advance of the Germans. The Assyrians in Russia and in United States have joined the Armed Forces of their respective countries and are rendering valuable services.

From the available information, it appears that the valuable services and sacrifices made by the Assyrians during the present war similar to those of the last are going to be claimed and credited to others and utilized by the approved oppressors against the interests of the Assyrians. We wanted to be known as it is no secret to us that the Iraqi public still considers the decision of the Assyrians to join and fight on the side of the Allies while they (Iraqis) had decided and joined the Axis powers, a treacherous act on the part of the Assyrians and are therefore looking for a suitable opportunity to retaliate. This opportunity will be provided when the war is over and the Allied forces stationed in this country are repatriated and if no provisions are made to protect the Assyrians against their oppressors.

Unless the leading Allied Powers and noble Governments of. the United Nations undertake in the name of justice and humanity to intervene and demand the Assyrians be provided with rights for direct representation, and refuse any possible claims by others the credit for their valuable services and sacrifices during the present war preparations have been made in order to exploit the situation and prevent such claims and thus further prevent repetition of the great injustice which was done to the Assyrians at the end of the last war which has been left homeless destitute oppressed and persecuted.

We further wish to warn those unfamiliar with the mentality of Iraqi Arabs not to be mistaken to believe that a Cabinet change in Iraq as is the case, can any way bring about a change in public opinion and in the existing administrative political judicial diplomatic military and police machinery of the state, nine per cent of them enthusiastically have supported their Government Policy when that Government declared war on the Allies in support of Axis Powers nothing has undergone any appreciable changes since. It is the same public support. led by the same existing state machinery who consider the Assyrians responsible and instrumental in bringing about the defeat of their military forces and shattering of their pro-Axis war aims and inflicting on them losses in men and material, they therefore consider it their prime duty to retaliate in due course.

We the Assyrians appeal to the justice and humanitarian principles of the Allied Governments that:

Documents on the Kurdish Situation

With reference to the Legation's telegram no. 344 of September 4, 8:00 p.m., and to previous communications regarding the present revolt in Kurdistan, I have the honor to transmit translations of documents received from the Kurdish National League of Iran, and from Chiefs of five Kurdish tribes in Iran. Also enclosed is a copy of the memorandum received from the Kurdish Hope Society.

It will be noted that the communication from the Kurdish National League places the principle blame for present Kurdish ills upon Iraqi Prime Minister Hamdi Al-Pachachi and the Ministers of Interior and Finance, Mustafa Al-Umari and Salih Jabur. It points out that these ministers expect to make considerable profits through purchase of ammunition with which to kill the people of the Barzan district.

A similar communication to that from the Kurdish Chiefs of Persia was apparently submitted to our Embassy in Tehran with the request that an American representative be sent to view the misery of the Kurds under Iranian rule. These Kurds attribute their difficulties to the fact that they are a minority with traditions different from those of the Persians whom they accuse of cold bloodedly wishing to terminate their existence.

The memorandum from the Kurdish Hope Society asserts that one of the errors of the Versailles Conference was the distribution of the Kurdish people among Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria; that the Kurds hope to attain a Kurdish State under the terms of the Atlantic Charter; but that the Iraqi Government, aided and abetted by the British, is attempting to eliminate all possibility of Kurdish autonomy. It concludes by stating that the Iraqi Armed Forces which attacked Kurdish villages without warning on August 6 is unquestionably the aggressor in the present struggle and it is hoped that there will be American sympathy for the Kurdish cause.

The Kurdish Massacre on the Day of Allied Victory

Enclosure to Despatch No. 892, dated Sept. 6, 1945, subject, "Transmitting Translations of Documents on Kurdish Situation."

Fate has decreed that the oppressed Kurdish nation be the victim of the Turkish, Iranian, and Iraqi Governments and that these Governments play with its destiny as they wish. These three Governments have for hundreds of years been inflicting calamities and miseries on and killing the innocent men of this poor nation. These calamities pale into insignificance when compared with the social evils from which the Kurdish people are suffering, such as poverty, ignorance, and denial of the light of progress and civilization. Before the blood of the aged and the young of this nation dries in Turkish Kurdistan, their blood begins to flow in Iraq. So is the case in Iran. In spite of all this, the Kurds kept resisting these oppressions and persecutions and patiently bearing these injustices for hundreds of years. Moreover, the Kurdish nation has preserved its existence and traditions. It shall persist in its struggle and endeavor. It shall sacrifice the last drop of the blood of its sons until it breaks the chains of humiliation and bondage on its way to independence. The policy of force and coercion followed towards the Kurds in the three countries change with the tendencies of those who come to power. At one time oppression reaches its highest degree in one of these countries and while at another it abates and force is replaced by lenience, although temporarily.

In Iraq, oppression and persecution of the Kurds began with the coming into power. of the Cabinet of His Excellency Hamdi Al-Pachachi. Oppression extended to all the administrative, social and economic fields. The Government has planned two policies toward the Kurds (the policy of divide and annihilate). This policy is evident in the appointment of (Ma'ruf Chiyawuk) as Mutasarrif of Sulaimaniya Liwa. This man whose personal principle and behaviour are better known to his Arab brethren than to the sons of his own race, has applied the policy of "divide" to the inhabitants of Sulaimaniya Liwa, has established a network of espionage for his service, strengthened the influence of the feudal lords, and encouraged brigands to revolt and to carry out high way robberies. Thus, the administration became so weak that no sign of the Government authority was left in the Liwa. His indulgences in furthering his personal interests prevented him from attending to the needs of the Liwa. Undoubtedly, these situations have been created by the men of the present administration. We mention, especially, Mustafa Al-Umari and Salih Jabur who are the bitterest enemies of the Kurds. This is the policy of "divide". The policy of "annihilate" has actually been started by the Government in Barzan without any justification. The whole matter is that these Ministers feel the need of spending a quantity of the Army's ammunition so that they may be able to conduct another commercial deal with one of the Allied powers which has surplus ammunition as a result of the cessation of world hostilities. Such a deal will be profitable of them. We shall shortly hear that hundreds of Barzani old men, women and children and numerous members of the Army and Police have been killed and thousands of Dinars spent just to insure the personal wishes of these two Ministers. Let our Arab brethren know, as well as the Kurds themselves, that this move is but a reply to the appeal of Mulla Mustafa Al-Barzani for saving him and his people from the claws of hunger and bitter cold of the winter. Let them realize also that the responsibility for the crimes and faults which are committed by the Government, will fall in the first degree on the shoulders of the abovementioned Ministers, namely, Mustafa Al-Umari and Salih Jabur. Let both the Ministers understand that their hour of reckoning is inevitably approaching and that they shall suffer the result of their despotism to this poor nation.

Petition of Kurdish Tribes of Iran

Enclosure to Despatch No. 892, dated Sept. 6, 1945, subject, "Transmitting Translations of Documents on Kurdish Situation."

This petition is submitted by the Chiefs of the oppressed Kurdish tribes, the citizens of Meriwan and Oraman (two Kurdish provinces in Iran).

A few days ago we presented a petition to his Excellency the American Ambassador in Teheran in which we stated that 50,000 women and children are suffering under the Nazi-Iranian guns, machine guns and tanks and airplane bombs. Our eyes and hopes are turned towards the United Nations which have been fighting for six years during which they spilled the blood of millions of their youths in order to eradicate Nazi oppression of the crushed people.

Indeed, we are now a despised Kurdish Community, poor and oppressed, living under this terrible despotism without any nation to protect us from the low brutalities of the Iranians to whom we are not related by race, blood, doctrine, language and custom.

They show their animosity towards us for the several differences stated above; all. doors are closed to us and we have no outlet to get rid from this dilemma and oppression.

Now that the roar of the Nazi guns on all battlefields has stilled down, this roar is not yet stilled in Iran. It is still reverberating in Iran where the Persians are using these same weapons to kill innocent children and women. without any cause.

The Kurds who number several million souls have been awaiting your kindness for several years. They beg you to look into the Kurdish problem and to save their children and. women from Turkish and Iranian tyranny.

3) The Kurds are regarded as strangers. As Hitler said in a broadcast, he intended to exterminate the Kurds when reaching Iran.

4) The pretext that we possess firearms which we are reluctant to give back and which they are asking us to deliver.

2) Are there no other communities differing in customs, language and traditions living a free existence under clement rule?

4) The firearms they ask us to surrender are held for the sole purpose of protecting ourselves against Iranian evil and if the United Nations guarantee our protection against Persian oppression, we would be ready to deliver our arms to them in any locality they choose whether in Iran, Sulaimaniya or Baghdad.

But if the United Nations will forsake us, it will then. mean the return of Iran to the Pahlawi period when hundreds of Kurds were driven to prisons and to the gallows without trials and their property was confiscated by the Government and distributed to Pahlawi followers. We are not afraid of these difficulties but any person possessing some decency and honor hates to go to the scaffols without any reason. If Nazi arms remain in Iranian hands and they persist in exterminating the Kurds, this will mean the persistance of Nazi doctrines at a time when such doctrines have vanished from the world.

Our crying and hungry children and women are awaiting the United Nations to remove these atrocities. If you would kindly send a representative to visit these regions you would be aware of the truth of our claims.

In the end we hope that your Excellency will kindly answer this appeal and the preceeding one sent to the American Ambassador in Teheran.

Program of the Kurdish Hope Society

Enclosure to Despatch No. 892, dated Sept. 6, 1945, subject, "Transmitting Translations of Documents on Kurdish Situation."

With due respect we have the honour to inform your Excellency of the reasons which led to the Kurdish national revolution which has now broken in the North of Iraq.

One of the errors in the Peace Conference after the World War I, was that the Kurdish cities were forcibly distributed between the four Governments: Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Since that day up to now the bloody revolts did not cease between the Kurdish nation and those Governments as they did not follow the right path in administrating the country but they judged on iniquity and tyranny, dispersed and humiliated the nation, and took all possible measures to silence the voice of the wretched. Kurds who were claiming their stolen rights and liberty. It is most regrettable that some States who have their interests in the middle East were supporting the said four Governments while they should have aided the weak nations after they have proclaimed democratic judgment and declared themselves as its defenders.

With the end of the World War II, the hopes of the miserable nations have revived to get rid of the oppression and tyranny, especially when the Allied Nations have promised the independence of the nations and giving them the right to decide their own fate; the Atlantic Charter being the rock on which most of the nations built their hopes.

It is natural that the Kurdish nation should also endeavour to save itself from its present position and that endeavour was most of the times peaceful without using any means of violence or intimidation, but this was disliked by the governments who were entrusted with the administration of the Kurdish districts and they exercised every effort to extinguish any movement which may cause the voice of the Kurds to be heard in the outside world and so prevented them from gaining their natural rights.

Whenever the Iraq Government felt of the desire of the Kurds for independence, she has exercised every endeavour to destroy every such desire and movement, and in accordance with this policy it has, in 1944, despatched a military expedition to Barzan district (Northern Iraq) to punish the Kurds, but she has completely failed in its task and thus she was compelled to resort to the British Government who in turn had warned the Kurds that they should be tranquil and quiet on the plea that the Iraq Government is an allied state and any movement will hinder the war effort. We have therefore acceded to this warning in view of its reasonability at the time, and tried to make good our relations with the Iraq Government until the next Peace Conference, thus we have proved to everybody our good intentions. However, the interference of the British Government has encouraged the Iraq Government who started to defer the fulfillment of her undertakings to execute the improvements for the neglected. northern districts, and she at the same time commenced building blockhouses, organizing the army and preparing arms. It was when her preparations have been completed and after her decision to attack the Kurdish villages without previous warning came to light on 6th August, 1945, that the revolution in question has resulted.

We beg that your Excellency be aware that the Iraq Government is the transgressor and it was she who started the attack, and we request that this revolution be considered as a national revolution aiming at gaining the rights of the Kurdish nation and its independence.

In conclusion we request your Excellency to kindly accept this memorandum and grant your kind sympathy to the Kurdish cause, and shall be extremely grateful if you will be so kind as to communicate it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of your Honourable Government.

Campaign in Iraq Against the Kurds

Having in mind Baghdad's No. 320 of August 23, 11 a.m. and other communications from Baghdad regarding the present CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE KURDS, I asked Mr. Tandy to drop in at my office when he was next in the Department. He did so on September 7. I said that we had information that a campaign was on by the Iraqi Government for the purpose of asserting its authority in Iraqi Kurdistan, it appeared that the main lines of the campaign may have been laid down by the British and that possibly it was being conducted at British suggestion.

I said to Mr. Tandy that, whatever the facts in regard to British participation in the campaign, it seemed to us not unlikely that the Russians would consider that the campaign was under British direction. Following that line of thought, we had wondered whether the British had given consideration to whether the Russians might not assist the Iraqi Kurds on the other side of the frontier, and whether a covert struggle might cause the Russians to be reluctant to withdraw their troops from Iran and stiffen the desire of the Soviet Russia to get back Kars and Ardahan from Turkey, which lie roughly to the north of Iraqi Kurdistan.

I emphasized that we were not unduly concerned over the prospects, but that these thoughts had occurred to us. The British had doubtless thought the matter through, and, if possible, we would like to know how they had worked the thing out in their minds.

Mr. Tandy made no reply except to say that the Russians were active in their work with minority groups throughout much of the Middle East. He said the Embassy had received very little from Baghdad and that he would make inquiries.

Several days later Mr. Tandy came in and said that he had discussed the matter with Field Marshal Wilson. The campaign was "purely an Iraqi show". The British were not worried about Russian support from across the frontier in Iran because there was a belt between the Kurds of Iraq and the Kurds of Iran which was under control, so that aid could not get through from one group to the other.

British Advisor's View of the Kurdish Question

SUBJECT: Transmitting Memorandum of Conversation with G.H. Thompson, British Charge d'Affaires at Baghdad.

With reference to the Legation's telegrams No. 353 of September 12, 6 p.m. and No. 354 of September 1.3, 12 noon, I have the honor to transmit a Memorandum of Conversation with Mr. G.H. Thompson, British Charge d'Affaires at Baghdad which was prepared by Robert B. Memminger.

In view of the current interest of the subject matter of the memorandum - the Kurdish situation, the Regent, the status of the Iraqi Government, the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty - and the great influence which Mr. Thompson wields in this country, it is believed that the views which he has so frankly expressed may be of interest to the Department.

The Department may wish to note particularly that Mr. Thompson believes that the Iraqi campaign in Kurdistan, although off to a bad start, will still be successful now that it appears that General Renton's advice is to be more closely followed; that Great Britain will offer no encouragement or protection to minorities in this country as it wishes them all to become good Iraqis; that British internal objectives here are to assist Iraq in securing and maintaining peace, prosperity and progress; that the British Embassy is displeased with the Regent's actions and attitude; and that it appears that the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty is to be revised to a sufficient extent to permit this country to exchange Ambassadors on an equal footing with other friendly states.

I called on G.H. Thompson this morning at his suggestion to discuss the Kurdish situation with him. He told me that inasmuch as there were so many conflicting rumors and false reports going around Baghdad at present, he wanted very much to make sure that the American Legation had a correct and current picture of the events in Kurdistan. He also assured me that at any time in which I felt the slightest need of any information which he might have or any advice which he might be able to give, that I should not hesitate to call upon him.

Thompson began by pointing oft to me on a rather detailed map the exact present position of the Iraqi forces engaging the Mulla Mustafa in Kurdistan. He stated frankly that the Iraqi column which had advanced north from Aqra had been cut off by the Kurds at a place called Dinitra to the northeast of Aqra. In this engagement he said the Iraqis suffered about 100 casualties and lost considerable supplies of arms and ammunitions, including three Howitzers, one of which was used by the Kurds to force_, surrender of a Police post at Bille. Attempts to supply these 2~ lost, battalions by air had been unsuccessful with the Kurds receiving practically all of the supplies dropped for them. He added, however, that the Iraqis had been surprisingly successful yesterday in sending a truck convoy through a round about route to their aid. Thompson interpreted the ease with which this convoy reached its destination as an indication that the Mulla's forces are much smaller than the 2,000 men accredited to him by the Iraqi Army.

The second column which began its advance at Rowanduz had reached the iron bridge at Mazna, half way to Mergasor, and was holding on there and would hold on there, as the destruction of the bridge by the Kurds would be a blow to the Iraqi plan of campaign.

The third column, consisting of Iraqi police, which began its advance from Amadiya has reached the river Zab meeting practically no opposition on the way. This column, however, now having no support on its right flank will return to Amadiya.

Thompson says that it is too late to launch another full dress offensive this year and that General Renton now plans: (1) To hold a line running from east to west across Southern Kurdistan, i.e., from Mazna through Aqra to Amadiya; (2) to harass the Kurds throughout the winter with heavy reconnaissance parties using 25-pounders; (3) and to launch a big offensive next spring. I asked Mr. Thompson if he believes the Iraqis had sufficient stability to remain in Kurdistan throughout the winter, and he replied in the affirmative, pointing out that this Army had maneouvered in that area during the cold weather last year.

Thompson showed me a telegram which he had sent to London on August 29 pointing out that he had made it clear both to Renton and to Prime Minister Pachachi that while General Renton was here purely in an advisory capacity and could not expect nor demand that his advice be invariably followed, the Iraqi general staff was making a dangerous mistake in not hewing closely to General Renton's suggestions. I gathered that Pachachi agreed with Thompson and that he would bring his influence to bear upon the general staff in order to minimize future difficulties. It appears, however, that despite Thompson's injunctions, Renton's protests, and Pachachi's influence, that the Iraqi Army did precipitate its offensive September 4 with unfortunate results. In this connection, Thompson stated that the Iraqi Army had moved (much to Renton's horror) with their brigades at only three quarters of their battle strength. I then asked Thompson if it were not true that General Renton returned to Baghdad on September 10 to further protest against the inability of some of the higher ranking Iraqi staff officers. Thompson replied that this was true, that Renton was particularly desirous of having two Iraqi generals, whose names he could not remember, removed for other inefficiency. (One of these, according to CICI, was General Mustafa Raghib, Divisional Commander in charge of the operation.) He added that as a result of the talks held here on September 10, it now appeared that Renton's path would be considerably smoother and that from now on his advice would be fairly closely followed. Thompson appears to believe that the Iraqis now having learned in blood that a responsible military commander must have something more than good political connections, will be more reasonable in their attitude and that the Kurdish campaign will henceforth proceed according to plan.

Thompson said that he was particularly anxious that I understand the background of the Iraqi-Kurdish situation. He explained that in the summer of 1941 when the British were asked to establish a military mission in this country, they realized that they had neither the supplies nor the talent available to properly train Iraq's armed forces. The British Army, therefore, appointed as head of the military mission to Iraq, Major General D.G. Brownlow, a dashing cavalry officer of the old school. General Brownlow was instructed to do the best he could in training the Iraqis and to keep them as content as possible playing polo and sticking pigs. This Brownlow did admirably and all went passably well here until 1943 when Mulla Mustafa and his Barzanis rebelled against the Government. The unprepared and ill-equipped Iraqi Army immediately displayed more courage than skill by marching recklessly into the Kurdish hills where it was routed by the Mulla's deadly rifle men.

The British Embassy then advised the Iraqi Government that the Kurds did have much justification for complaint and that immediate steps should be taken to do something for them. According to Thompson, the Iraqi Government took this advice seriously and gave concrete assistance to the Kurdish people in the form of textiles, food stuffs, etc., while proceeding with plans to construct schools and hospitals in various Kurdish districts. This work proceeded falteringly, but none the less steadily and with good intent.

By the spring of 1944 the British were in a position to offer considerably more assistance to the Iraqi Army, which they strongly desired (as they still do) to turn into a fighting force of sufficient power to maintain internal order at all times in this country. Military supplies were sent in and General J.M.L. Renton, an officer with many years of experience and who had commanded an Eighth Army Division in the campaign against Rommel, was placed in charge of the military mission here. General Renton, a hard and conscientious worker, drove his Iraqi charges with skill and enthusiasm and there is no doubt that he has improved them tremendously.

By July, 1945, the Iraqi Government having done a great deal to improve living conditions in Kurdistan, decided that it would go the whole way and grant amnesty to Mulla Mustafa and his followers. Unfortunately, however, Thompson pointed out ironically the ink was hardly dry on the pardons before the Mulla began acting in an arrogant, dictatorial fashion, as though he were a law unto himself and to openly defy the orders of the Iraq Government authorities. The British Embassy warned him that he could expect no British support and the Iraqi authorities did everything possible to convince him that he was after all a citizen of Iraq. With the Mulla's refusal to listen to reason, Mustafa Al-Umari, Iraqi Minister of Interior, told Thompson that he had decided that the time had come to settle the Mulla once and for all. Thompson said, "I endorsed this decision, and I sometimes wonder now if I was right. I believe, however, that I was." Thompson cautioned Al-Umari that Kurdish terrain was difficult, that the Kurds were great guerilla fighters and that although the Iraqi Army had been undoubtedly improved, it had not yet been tried in battle. He suggested, therefore, that the Iraqi Government make every effort to impress the General Staff with the necessity of scrupulously adhering to the advice of General Renton and his British aides. Thompson seems convinced that if General Renton's advice had been more closely followed that the Mulla could have been subdued this year.

Thompson said that he could not imagine where Richard Wyndham, a "rather bad hat", obtained the information for his story from Jerusalem on the Kurdish campaign, as he was certain that the Embassy at Baghdad had passed on no information on this matter to Jerusalem. I assured him that the only comment on the Kurdish situation by our Legation which had been repeated to Jerusalem was contained in my monthly political summary for August, which was sent to Jerusalem after the release of Wyndham's story. Thompson then added that he considered the absurd denials of the rebellion in Kurdistan which had been issued by the Iraqi Government immediately after release of Wyndham's despatch would do no good at all and might have a bad effect on the general situation.

With reference to rumors of Russian encouragement to the Kurds, Thompson emphasized that he had not seen any evidence at all that the Russians were connected with the situation in any way. He added, however, that certain members of the Soviet Legation staff here had indulged in considerable loose talk with reference to Britain's position in the matter. (He was obviously referring to Soviet Attache Safarov, whom I have heard quoted as telling various Iraqis that the British were running off the. Kurdish campaign in order to maintain their position here.)

At the conclusion of our discussion of the Kurdish affair, Thompson carefully accentuated that the whole campaign is Iraqi in every respect. He stated that Britain wished this country to become unified, peaceful, and prosperous, and that British policy here was devoted to these ends. He stated that he considered the idea of an independent Kurdistan so impractical as to be ridiculous and that the minority groups here must be made to realize that they were Iraqi and that they could not depend on Britain for support or protection.

We were interrupted once by a telephone call which seemed to irritate Thompson a great deal. He told me that it was in connection with the Regent's request, or more correctly speaking, demand, that a plane capable of carrying eight persons with all of their baggage be sent to Ankara to bring him and his party back to Baghdad. Thompson stated wryly: "You can imaging how much luggage that party will have!" He then told me that the Regent had calmly requested the British to send one cruiser and two destroyers to Naples for him so that he might travel to Istanbul in the princely style in which he is all too rapidly becoming accustomed. In fact, Thompson said, the Regent is growing steadily more unreasonable and completely overlooks the fact that the day of arrogant princes is done. The Regent, he says, has absolutely no sense of "noblesse oblige" and lacks the common touch. Unfortunately, Thompson said, he is surrounded by a group of ignorant "yes-men" who are demoralizing him. The Emir Zaid simply must be induced to remain at the Palace as advisor to the Regent, since he is the one man of the world of experience and intelligence to whose advice Abdul Ila will listen.

Thompson said that he had been particularly irritated by the Regent's request for more dollar exchange to be used in the United States. He pointed out that the Regent was given $100,000 before leaving for America, in which country all of his expenses had been paid, and that his request for an additional $200,000 was preposterous. Thompson said he felt that the Regent was angry with him for refusing these additional funds, which he in all good conscience had to do. He added that he had explained the situation to Dr. Sinderson before he left for the United States with the Regent and had urged him to beat the rudiments of the question into Abdul Ila's thick head. Thompson was fully aware of the $225,000 purchase of jewelry which the Regent had made in Cartier's in New York and that he had made a down payment of $100,000 which he had borrowed. He did not seem to know that this money had been obtained from Marcel Wagner, and I did not tell him. He assumes that the Regent will sell the jewelry here at a 100 per cent profit. Thompson seemed very concerned about the Regent's general attitude and fears that there is going to be a good deal of trouble on his return. He stated frankly that the Regent was the key to the whole situation in this country and that he simply had to be kept in line. He pointed out that it is now impossible to get anything done by the Iraqi Government, as each member of the Cabinet expects to be discharged by the Regent on his return. Thompson understands that the Regent wishes to make Nuri Pasha Prime Minister and he, like a number of others with whom I have talked recently, considers this impossible in view of the decline in prestige which Nuri has suffered in recent months. Thompson concluded that he would have to have a very serious talk with the Regent on his return.

Thompson considers the present Iraqi Government to be one of the best that has ever existed in this country with practically every cabinet member relatively able and efficient. I told him that I heard very good things in general of the members of the Pachachi Government, but that considerable criticism seemed to be occasionally leveled against Mustafa Al-Umari. Thompson replied that this resentment had probably been connected with the Minister of Interior's fondness for money, but that I must realize that the attitude of an Iraqi and especially an Iraqi politician towards graft and bribery was considerably different than that of an Anglo-Saxon.

I asked Thompson about the rumor that the Emir Zaid was going to London as the first Iraqi Ambassador. He replied that he did not know but hoped that it was not true, as he was too badly needed here. I then asked him if there was a chance of the Anglo-Iraqi treaty being ammended so as to permit the exchange of Ambassadors with other countries. He replied very definitely, "Yes," adding that the British having recently appointed the able and hardy Stonehewer-Bird as Ambassador to Iraq, would undoubtedly keep him here for the next five or six years. Parenthetically, he pointed out that many of Britains difficulties in this country during the 1930's were due to a succession of short-termed nincompoops as chiefs of the mission here. Thompson believes that London would welcome the appointment of an American Ambassador to Baghdad, since the precedence of the British Ambassador would be preserved for sometime, Anglo-American relations here strengthened, and the morale of the Iraqis would be lifted. Personally, Thompson said, he had little use for diplomatic precedence, and believed that if Britain's position was dependent on whether or not her representative went through a door first or second, that Britain was in a pretty bad way. He added, however, that precedence would mean something to certain brass hats in Whitehall, and it was just as well that this point appear to be settled.

He then added significantly that he had "heard" that the United States was about to appoint an Ambassador to Cairo and that the Americans had not consulted with the British on this point. If this is true, Thompson said, it might well alter the situation a good deal. I replied that while I heard nothing of any plan for the appointment of an Ambassador to Egypt, I did understand that we hoped eventually to have Ambassadors in all countries. Thompson agreed that this was a sound idea which he hoped Great Britain would also follow. He then added significantly that it was not hard to deduce that the United States did not intend to appoint another Minister to Iraq. I said. nothing which would lead him to believe that this deduction was erroneous.

British Role in Iraqi Attempts to Resolve the Kurdish Problem

G.H. Thompson, the British Charge here, asked me to call yesterday to discuss a report from the Embassy in Washington to the effect that the Chief of the State Department's Near Eastern Division had informally expressed "some concern" over the potential dangers of the Kurdish situation, and the "support being rendered the Iraqi Army by British armed forces." As you know we feel that the Kurdish campaign is largely British inspired although, as pointed out in my memorandum of September 12, 1945, transmitted with despatch no. 897 of September 13, 1945, Thompson claims to have only endorsed the campaign when it was suggested by the Minister of Interior. Even this, however, indicates that if the British did not begin the show and even though they may be having difficulties with its direction, they could probably have stifled-it in its inception. The campaign is not going forward at all according to plan, and consequently even so cool and experienced a diplomat as Thompson is inclined to be particularly sensitive to any criticism. Fortunately, I have succeeded in establishing a fairly close and very friendly relationship with Thompson, and his talk with me seemed as much a search for understanding as a complaint of exaggerated reporting by a person or persons unknown.

I pointed out to Thompson that the phrase "viewed with some concern" fell far short of viewing with alarm or anxiety and certainly should not be construed as a protest against British policy vis-a-vis the Kurds. After all, I said, the marshalling of 14,000 soldiers in one area was not just something which occurred every Thursday afternoon and in my opinion was sufficient in itself to be a cause of "concern" riot only to Kurds, Iraqis and British, but to every country interested in the world's welfare and progress. I then admitted that the phrase "supported by British armed forces" was undoubtedly an exaggeration since General Renton and his British assistants were in the pay of the Iraqi Government and were authorized only to suggest and not to command. I asked him, however, if he would not agree that if General Renton had not succeeded in withholding the Iraqi Army's attack from mid-August to September 4 that conditions for the Iraqis would be considerably worse. He could only concur in this, and added that if the Iraqi Army had attacked immediately the reverse suffered near Aqra would have been a disaster.

Thompson showed me his reply to London in which, to the best of my memory, he recapitulated the business about the Mulla being merely the leader of a brigand band, that the campaign is a 100 per cent Iraqi affair, and that British Military Mission was acting solely in an advisory capacity with its advice followed all too seldom. He went on to brand our reported fear that the Kurdish situation might cause the upset of the balance in the Middle East as "ridiculous nonsense". I admitted freely that I did not consider this a likely result and pointed out to him that this Mission had scrupulously refrained from the natural temptation, to which a few of his intelligence officers yielded occasionally, of dragging in the Russian Bogey. I also admitted that it did not appear that anyone was particularly concerned with the Kurdish-Persian fighting in Iran which seemed to have been going on blithefully for some months. I added, however, that I could not help but feel that any war, no matter how small, was dangerous, and that the theory of localized conflict had proved pretty ruinous to several notorious gentlemen. even in recent history.

In conclusion I then told Thompson that you were remarkably calm, careful and intelligent and such exaggeration as he felt had occurred was probably due to a misinterpretation by a member of his Washington Embassy staff with whom you were said to have spoken.

This served to put him on the defensive a bit and he said that the "reports which seemed to have worried Washington" had apparently come from Persia. I let it go at this, as you will appreciate that while we will certainly do everything possible to advance our interests, it is vitally important, in fact practically essential, here to be on good terms with the British. In any case he seemed entirely reconciled to the whole thing; said that he certainly had no intention of trying to put me on the spot, etc., but added that he felt that the matter should be called to my attention. For my part, I felt that while I gained no ground I had lost none.

It seemed to me wiser to pass this story on to you in a personal letter. I hope you agree.

Many thanks for your letter of September 18, telling me of your conversation with the British Charge on the previous day, regarding the conversation I had there with Tandy of the British Embassy on September 7.

I think it will be apparent from the memorandum of the conversation which, I anticipate, you duly received, that Tandy overplayed it. he was, in fact, batting for Michael Wright with whom we usually discuss such matters and is inexperienced in diplomatic work, having recently come to Washington from Indianapolis, where he was the British Consul. On our side, I did my best to pitch the conversation on a low key. Our basic feeling was that while there might not be ramifications, still there were situations 'round about which could conceivably get muddied up, and if the British by any chance should get into serious trouble we would probably be called upon to help out in one way or another. Our purpose was to put the British on notice that we were attentive to this matter and we hoped that, if by any chance the British had not thought the various possibilities through and taken them into careful account, our display of interest might cause them to do so.

I should just like to add that I was quite aware from the Legation's messages that the British armed forces were not supporting the Iraqis. In fact, I recall that Tandy asked me whether I understood the British were rendering such support, and that I replied in the negative.

of course, If we had been really warmed up about the matter, our approach to the British would have been on a much higher level. From another point of view, the conversation was for the record so that, if things by any chance had got serious, it could not be said that we were asleep at the switch.

Warmest regards to you. But I hope Baghdad has begun to cool off. It was 34 here this morning, and that is pretty brisk for Washington at this time of year.

Communist Propaganda in the Kurdish Language

SUBJECT: Transmitting Translation. of Communist Leaflet Distributed in Kurdish and Arabic.

With reference to the Legation's despatch no. 783 of June 21, 1945 I have the honor to transmit a translation of a leaflet apparently distributed by the Executive Committee of the Iraqi Communist Party. According to local British Intelligence Headquarters which furnished the Legation with the attached translation, hundreds of copies of the leaflet were subversively distributed here.

It will be noted that the leaflet alleges that the British Embassy and British Military Mission instigated the Kurdish campaign in order to strengthen British influence in this area through the creation of discord between Arabs and Kurds; condems British created rumors that the rebellious Mulla Mustafa is receiving Soviet support; and concludes with following six demands:

(d) An inquiry into causes of Barzani incident and an open trial of its instigators.

The last few issues of Quida, secret Communist sheet which appears here about twice a month, have been strongly pro-Kurd and as usual violently anti-British. This paper, however, concentrates consistently on increased rights for Iraqi workers, and its occasional barbed allegations of British responsibility for the trouble in Kurdistan are only variations on its central theme of the essential evil and injustice of British imperialism.

While these Communist attacks on the British and the Iraqi Government for the Kurdish campaign have some significance as to where the local Party's sympathies lie, there is still no evidence of Soviet encouragement to the Barzanis.

Enclosure to despatch no. 909 dated September 27, 1945; subject: "Transmitting Translation of Communist Leaflet Distributed in Kurdish and Arabic."

The free peoples of the world have passed through a terrible war, sacrificed millions of their children and spent enormous sums of money for the purpose of wiping out the Nazi terror and to ensure that the peoples receive freedom and bread. The Iraqi people - Arabs and Kurds - have exerted strong efforts in this respect and have put all the resources of the country at the disposal of the war effort. The Iraqi people did not do this to destroy the Fascist beast and its methods in Europe only, but to save our country from the Fascist terrorist methods and the imperialist intrigues which set part of our people against the other. It did this also to prevent the spread of national and religious extremism and also to get rid of the military expeditions staged by our Government which are in most cases instigated by the imperialists as well as of the martial laws which have been persisting for the past ten years.

The aggression of the dictators against the peoples of Europe has been described as bestial and barbarous, while the terrorist raids against our Kurdish and Arab tribes are described as democratic punitive expeditions. These attacks have recently started to threaten the very existence of the country and drive the Iraqi people to destruction and cause even a civil war.

Any time a military expedition has been staged in the past against Kurdish or Arab tribes, rumours have circulated that it was the British who instigated the mutiny. As regards the Barzani affair it was the Government who was the beginner. The forces sent against them are strong and equipped with British latest weapons. According to proof as well as information collected by many people it was the British imperialists who ordered the attack against the Barzanis.

The Iraqi Government on the order of the British Embassy and the British Military Mission has created this insurrection. The Kurdish vassals such as Tawfiq Wahbi, Maarouf Chiawouk, Nouri Bawil and others are helping the expedition and asking the Kurds to fight the Barzanis. The Arab and Kurdish agents of Imperialism are now trying to exploit this incident to stir up the Kurdish feelings against the Arabs and the Arab feelings against the Kurds; that is to say they are working for the waging of a civil war between the two principal peoples in Iraq.

The imperialists and the local Government pretend that Mulla Mustafa receives arms and ammunition from the Soviets across the frontier. They have distributed their agents to circulate such rumours among the ordinary people in order to prepare them to approve the expedition against the Barzani. Such methods will naturally fail as the reasoning men of the Kurdish and Arab peoples cannot believe these lies. The British are inciting the Iranian •Government against the Iranian Kurds as they did in Iraq. Their purpose is too clear. They want to strengthen their influence in this part of the world by exterminating the spirit of liberation among the Kurds and finding means for creating division and hatred among the Kurds and Iranians in Iran and the Kurds and Arabs in Iraq.

Our Iraq Communist Party declares its indignation in regard to the Government attack against the Barzani tribes and the neighbouring peaceful Kurdish villages. It also condemns the arrest of distinguished Kurdish personalities as well as the operations carried out by the Iraqi Army - an army which was founded for the national defense.

(b) The release of all those who have been arrested as a result of the incident.

(d) The opening of an inquiry for the purpose of discovering the causes of the incident and trying the instigators by the civil Courts openly in order to acquaint the public with these intrigues.

Our Iraq Communist Party appeals to all Iraqis, Arabs, Kurds and others to fight for the realization of these demands and to combat all propaganda and other activities which might throw at the end the Iraqi people into the fire of imperialism.

The Jewish Anti-Zionist League in Iraq

With reference to the Legation's despatch no. 896 of September 12, 1945, I have the honor to report that a group of local Jews, most of whom are said to be between the ages of 18 and 25, have recently been attempting to form an anti-Zionist League in Baghdad. As a number of references to this organization have appeared in the vernacular press, two outstanding leaders of Baghdad Jewry, Messrs. Daoud Salman and Shalom Darwish, Secretary General to the Jewish Community, were interviewed on the subject. According to these gentlemen the leaders of the local Jewish community, while doing nothing to encourage the anti-Zionist movement here, have done nothing to oppose it. They add in fact, that while the proposed Anti-Zionist League is probably Communistic and certainly an extreme Leftist group, it has served a very useful purpose in obtaining statements from prominent local politicians which are favorable and reassuring to the Jews of Baghdad. In this connection, I have noted recent statements in the press from such men as Prime Minister Hamdi Pachachi; Mawloud Pasha Mukhlus, Senator and ex-President of the Chamber of Deputies; Ridha Al-Shabibi, ex-Minister of Education and former President of the Senate; Sa'ad Salih, a leading member of the Chamber of Deputies; and Sayid Abdul Mahdi, one of the most influential Shias of Iraq, a former Minister of Education and a Deputy - to the effect that the Arabs and Jews of Iraq had lived for many years in peace together and that they would, of course, continue to do so; that there was no feeling of animosity against Iraqi Jews among Iraqi Arabs; that the Jews of Iraq were sterling citizens of this great country, etc.

Messrs. Salman and Darwish state that the organizers and leaders of the anti-Zionist movement here, which now has about fifty members, are Masrour Qattan, a staff writer on the extremely pro-Soviet daily Al Sha'ab, and Brahim Naji, a minor employee of a local drug store. Qattan's father, they say, is a fairly well known lawyer and landowner, while Naji "has no social standing." They add that the leaders of the League have requested the right to organize legally as a "Society" but they do not believe this right will be granted as the Government fears it would be used to cloak communist activities.

Daoud Salam states that the British Embassy has unofficially inquired as to what local Jews thought of the Anti-Zionist League, and that the Jews replied that they had nothing for or against the idea since the Baghdad Jewish community is a non-political body. Salman adds that the Jews took advantage of this opportunity to emphasize to the British that no real harm could befall Jews in Iraq without British approval.

In this connection Salam points out that there were two established and several rumored assaults on Jewish women by Moslem hoodlums last month. In each case the assault consisted simply of the throwing of acid on the womens dresses with no serious injury to the persons of the women attacked. Salam claims, however, that the husband of one of the women concerned reported the case to the police who refused to take action. Other Jews have told me that they are in constant fear of the outbreak of similar unorganized hoodlum activities.

With reference to the anti-Semitic letter in the Iraqi magazine Alam of-Ghad (World of Tomorrow), reported in despatch no. 896 of September 12, 1945, Salman says local Jews decided against risking the publicity inherent in their contemplated protest to Prime Minister Pachachi. The Jews, however, let their displeasure be known both to the editor of the offending publication and to the letter's author, Director General of Foreign Affairs, Fadhil Jamali. It is a fact that the magazine apologized for the story, and stated that it was written by one Fadhil Ahmed, who the Jews assert is a purely fictitious character. The magazine also published a. letter signed F.A., said by the Jews to be likewise written by Fadhil Jamali, which stresses that the letter to which local Jews objected had evidently been misinterpreted as the Jews of Iraq were held in high esteem.

Kurds Protest Iraqi, Iranian and Turkish Efforts at Suppression of Kurdish Independence Aims

In continuation of the Legation's despatch No. 892 of September 6, 1945, I have the honor to transmit herewith a petition signed by twenty-eight prominent Kurds of the Sulaimaniya Liwa addressed to the local representatives of the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, Russia, China, and France. The petition alleges that the "Iraqi and Iranian Governments - supported by the dictatorial government of Turkey" - are massacring the peaceful Kurdish people, and pleads that an international commission be formed to investigate the causes of these persecutions and to hear the case of the Kurdish people.

The Legation's Assistant Military Attache, Captain Archibald B. Roosevelt, who has just returned from a week's visit to the Sulaimaniya Liwa, reports that the people of that region are showing increasing resentment against recent actions of the Iraqi Government. He says that the Iraqi authorities in Kurdistan are reliably reported as arbitrarily arresting Kurds and confining them in concentration camps, and that there are constant rumors of summary executions of civilians after swift military court martials. He adds that the Iraqi authorities are exploiting the smaller Kurdish tobacco growers through such means as refusing to grade tobacco except in places which are inaccessible to many of the small farmers. A copy of Captain Roosevelt's complete report will be furnished the Department as soon as it is completed.

In this connection it is significant that G.H. Thompson, Counselor of the British Embassy, told a member of my staff today that the treatment of Kurdish civilians by the Iraqi Military authorities in recent weeks had been stupidly brutal and that minor offenses had been drastically punished with bare attention to legal forms. For example, he pointed out that a Kurdish boy was quickly condemned to death on October 12 for stealing a few yards of copper wire and was scheduled to be hanged next week. He said that the British Ambassador intended to discuss this case with the Regent on October 15. The Ambassador intends to tell the Regent that he can hang the Mulla Mustafa or any of his close associates he is able to catch, but he will emphasize strongly that the Kurdish people must from now on be treated with much greater leniency.

Thompson is of the opinion that the standard of living and general prosperity in Kurdistan is much higher than it was twenty or even ten years ago, and now that the recalcitrant Mulla is definitely on the wane there is no reason why the often cantankerous Kurds cannot be made a contented and important part of the Iraqi family. On the other hand, he fears that continuance of the present arbitrary methods of dealing with the Kurdish populations in certain areas, might lead to a general revolt of the Kurdish tribes with which the Iraqi government would be utterly unable to cope.

Proclamation of the Kurdish Rizgari Party

His Excellency the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States Republic, Baghdad.

His Excellency the Minister Plenipotentiary of the USSR His Excellency the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of China

The United Nations victory was received with great jubilation in Kurdistan because of the hopes which the oppressed Kurdish nation had pinned on that victory and because the Kurdish nation anticipated that the democratic powers would grant to it its natural right in life and freedom. But no sooner the victory guns announced the defeat of despotic Fascism than Kurdistan became, from one end to another, a theater for the most barbarous crimes. The peaceful Kurdish people also became the object of massacre, persecution and expulsion which were not witnessed by any of the now liberated European peoples even during the height of Nazi tyranny. The Iraqi and the Iranian Governments - supported by the dictatorial Turkish Government - have sent great armies, equipped with modern arms, against these unarmed people with the resolve to exterminate them for no offense or crime, unless, O God, if we regard their demand for the right of self-determination as an offense, or their complaint against their oppressors and hangmen as a crime.

On this day, when the world is looking toward the dawn of a new era in which nations and individuals will lead a life free from fear, oppression and persecution; at a time when the world is celebrating the Nazi defeat and their racial and Chauvinistic theories, we find the Governments of Turkey, Iran and Iraq filling the sky of Kurdistan with airplanes and raining death and ruin on peaceful villages and other inhabited areas-their bombs destroying the towns and their machine guns mowing down the bodies of innocent children, old men and women. The foregoing Governments formed martial courts and established concentration camps and prisons throughout the country, throwing into their dungeons innocent people for no crime and without trial. These measures took place while the democracies were celebrating their victory over the Nazis, and within the sight and hearing of the civilized world - no voice has been raised against these barbaric and ruthless deeds. It looks as though the world has, in the ecstacy of victory, forgotten its obligation to the weak nations or its confidence and hope-charged promises. It looks as though the world is offering these fine and gallant people as the last sacrifice on the altar of the war and Fascism.

We therefore, in the name of the Kurdish people who are doomed to annihilation, and, in the name of afflicted humanity, condemn the beastly deeds of the Iraqi and Iranian Governments - with Turkey's support - in Kurdistan. We submit this protest to Your Excellency and appeal to you to transmit it to your esteemed Government in its capacity as a signatory of the United Nations Charter charged with combating oppression and Nazism. We ask them, in the name of humanity, for immediate intercession to end these human butcheries and to form an international commission and delegate it to Kurdish in order to investigate the causes of these massacres and to listen to the complaints and demands of the Kurdish people.

In conclusion, we appeal to you to give due consideration to our complaint. May you remain the helper of the weak peoples.

(Note: This protest is signed by 28 persons whose names and identity appear in the enclosed sheet).

THE FOLLOWING LIST IS ATTACHED TO THE PROTEST GIVING THE IDENTITIES OF THOSE WHO HAVE SIGNED THE PROTEST

Proclamation of the Kurdish Rizgari Party

I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy of a memorandum of the Kurdish Rizgari Party dated January 18, 1946, which is addressed to the President of the United Nations Organization in care of this Legation, together with a map of Kurdistan which was submitted as an enclosure to the memorandum. Copies of this memorandum were also sent to the British Embassy and the Soviet and Chinese Legations.

The Legation has been unable thus far to obtain any specific information on the Rizgari Party either through its Iraqi political contacts, or British intelligence. It appears, however, to be another outgrowth of the growing Kurdish independence movement which seems to be spreading steadily through the Kurdish inhabited regions of Iraq, Iran and Turkey. It may be of some significance that the memorandum is often critical of what is deemed British and American interference in the internal affairs of other countries, and is strongly pro-Soviet in tone.

Enclosure to Despatch No. 1051 dated January 23, 1946, from the American Legation, Baghdad.

The Rizgari Kurdish Party has the honour to take this opportunity in wishing this great organization under your presidency every possible success in all its undertakings, as on its wise handling depends the future well being or complete destruction. of all mankind, and hopes that it will leave no stone unturned in order to discover all and the real sufferings of all people whether, small or large and to attempt to find a just reasonable and satisfactory solution particularly for the problems of the oppressed and persecuted peoples thus making this planet an ordered abode for all humanity and also make itself an immortal organization by crowning its efforts with undying glory for generations to come.

The Kurdish Rizgari Party being a real national organization considers it its premier duty to explain the desperate position of the Kurds and describe their sufferings under the yoke of imperialism and its puppet governments whose interests led the world to this cruel and savage war. The totalitarian Governments of Turkey Iraq and Iran still hope that by employing all the available means at their disposal to prevent their Kurdish slaves from placing their appeals - through legal channels - before the world organization and demand their rights as human beings and retribution from their oppressors who have so far enjoyed the privileges which they have so far undeservedly enjoyed in the absence of a just international organization such as the United Nations Organization.

This Party which is forced to operate underground and is at present - until arrangements are made by U.N.O. - only able to forward its appeals by the help of Foreign Legations or other progressive circles in Iran and Syria.

This Party has no doubt that you have an intimate knowledge of the status quo and the non democratic regimes of Turkey Iran and Iraq and torturous treatments which they accord to the Kurdish people whose lands they have divided enacted and governed.

The Peace Treaties after the first world war and the subsequent treaties divided Kurdistan by force and without consulting the Kurds among the four states of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, in order to safeguard the interests of imperialism and make them durable in the Middle East. These states on their side imposed their dictatorial rule on this peaceful nation and used all sorts of oppressive measures at their disposal to deprive them of their elementary rights and liberties such as talking and writing in their own language and expressing their free opinion. The Kurds- naturally did not accept this most humiliating partition and adopted every peaceful method in order to convince the world of the validity and legitimacy of their cause, but unfortunately, all those efforts ended in failure, because imperialism was not prepared to hear and submit to their voice and furthermore attempted to prevent it of reaching the outer world. Having failed by peaceful methods the Kurds adopted an active part by revolting against Turkey, Iran and Iraq, for a period of 25 years, in order to remove this tyranny and aggression.

In Turkey the Kurds have revolted on many occasions between the two world wars. These revolutions reached their climax in the most famous revolt of Sheikh Said in 1925 and that of Ihsan Nuri Pasha in 1930 and that of Dersim in 1938. But the dictatorial Kemalist government which was the nucleus of Fascism succeeded in suppressing by the support and help of Great Britain and France the revolts and in executing the leaders and dispersing the innocent Kurdish people. It goes without saying that these revolts were an answer to the aggressive and prejudicial policy of the Kemalist government whose sole aim has been the extermination and annihilation of the Kurdish people. It is too hard to give a full account of the way in which that government carried out this policy by massacres and mass emigration of the people from their own homes to other distant places and prohibiting them to speak their maternal language. During the passed 25 years the Kurds have and are suffering severely under the tyrannical regime of Turkey and nowhere their frequent appeals met any consideration. It is indeed misfortune that the world is on the threshold of peace and many conferences are held to discuss and solve the world problems, and the Kurds in Turkey are unable to have their voice heard in these conferences and to demand consideration of their problem in accordance with democratic principles and terms of Atlantic charter. This is quite natural in a country where a criminal gang governs and behaves contrary to the interests of the people. It is regrettable that Great Britain and U.S.A. consider the Turkish Government a democratic government and allow its representatives to take their place among the delegates of the democratic and peace loving nations and represent tyrants in the U.N.O. Therefore, it is not surprising not to hear any voice from the Kurds residing in Turkey and no similar appeals can be heard from the Armenians who are living under the same conditions. In view of such a calamitous and hopeless situation our Party demands that this criminal Kemalist gang which calls itself a government be removed and the Kurdish people given its full natural rights and full opportunity to self-determination.

In Iran the Kurds lived under no better conditions in any respect than those existing in Turkey. The despot ex-Shah and his government used every possible method for persecuting [several words illegible] every kind of human liberty until the occupation of Iran by the Allied forces. It was only then that the Kurds began to believe that the hour of their liberation has approached, so they wholeheartedly supported the Allied cause with all their might and took arms against the Fascist government of the ex-Shah. The Kurds who are in Red Army occupation zone enjoy their full rights and have been accorded full freedom and opportunity to express their opinions and able to revive their culture. At last they succeeded in collaboration with their compatriots other nationalities of Azerbaijan to establish a democratic autonomous government where their rights are secure and are recognised as a separate nationality. The Kurds and their compatriots owe their freedom to the non-intervention of U.S.S.R. in their affairs and its refusal to support and help the central government. But it is quite regrettable that the British authorities in their zone of occupation are supporting morally and even materially the central government of Tehran to frustrate and suppress the national liberation movement of Azerbaijan with the object of re-establishing the authority of the central government in those areas. Again we take this opportunity in the name of the Kurdish Nation our full support to the democratic autonomous government of Azerbaijan and express at the same time our resentment to the acts and policy of interference of the British and American imperialists and their puppet reactionary government of Tehran in the affairs of the autonomous government of Azerbaijan and other Kurdish areas located in Iran. We demand cessation of the British and American intervention in the internal affairs of those areas and request that the Kurdish population be given liberty to express its free opinion and. decide its own fate.

Although in Iraq (where our Party struggles) nominally its constitution recognises the rights of the Kurds, the successive Iraqi governments have denied the Kurds their rights and have done their best to suppress every national and democratic movement. When the world war ended in the glorious victory of democracy the Kurdish nation in Iraq renewed its political activity to regain its denied rights but the Iraqi Government supported by British imperialism is trying to put down every national movement which draws the Kurds nearer to liberation and self-determination. Recently a military expedition was despatched to Barazan District the stronghold and center of the Kurdish national movement. Having seen that it was almost impossible for them to resist the forces of the government supported by tremendous British armaments and ammunition, the patriots withdrew to Azerbaijan in Iran waiting the changes in international situation by the U.N.O. whereby they can return to their homes. When the patriots were removed from the field, the reactionary government of Iraq began to wage an aggressive war against the whole Kurdish people especially the national and progressive elements, by setting up court martials in all the Kurdish districts which are further brought under the administration of reactionary military officials. Hundreds of innocent people have been sentenced to death and imprisonment without any proof to their accusations, except that they have expressed sympathy with the national democratic cause and expressed their disapproval of government attitude towards the Kurdish population. [Several words illegible] removal of restrictions of the present reactionary government and its replacement by a democratic one which will accord all Iraqis constitutional freedom. Hence the Kurds in Iraq will have an opportunity to enjoy their legal rights with full freedom to decide their own fate.

When the World War II drew to its end the hope of the oppressed nations revived this included the Kurdish nation. who was the most prominent among the nations who supported the Allied nations with all its might in the Middle East, against Fascism and its satellite supporters. The Kurdish nation has and is attaching great hopes to the promises given by the statesmen of the Allied nations and provisions of the Atlantic Charter and Moscow declaration which provide the small nations the right to achieve full freedom and right to decide their own fates and manage their own affairs. If the great nations gave the brilliant promises to the small nations in their hour of distress in order to leave those promises ink on paper and forget them subsequently in the ecstacy of victory, the small nations will not give them up but will take them as a legal concession for claiming their rights.

The Kurdish Rizgari Party has no doubt that the errors of the past will not be repeated and that all the nations have been enlighted enough to reject the old policy which aimed at their exploitation and slavery. It was undoubtedly the greed and interests of that imperialist policy which led the world to so many unimaginable grievances and troubles in the two great world wars. The Party when offering your organisation this memorandum has a great reason to believe in your good intentions, and in your unshakable will to put an end to the forces of aggression and imperialism. It will be quite useful here to draw your attention to the fact that it will be impossible to establish world peace and rescue humanity from the terrible and distressful grievances of wars as long as some nations are exploited and humiliated by hateful imperialism. Our Party in the name of the Kurdish Nation who has been humiliated and subordinated to foreign rule, demands the extermination of imperialism in our country and the removal of the persecution and injustice of the governments to which it has been subordinated and divided.

The Kurdish Nation stresses and alleges that its rights should be returned as a necessary and preliminary step to self-determination and sovereignty. It must not be forgotten that the Kurdish nation is a very vital element for peace in this strategic and important part of the world, and that upon its liberation and sovereignty depends to a great extent peace in the Middle East and subsequently in the whole world.

We pray that the epoch of injustice and slavery has expired and replaced by a new one in which all the nations enjoy their liberties on equal terms, a liberty on account of. which the Allied nations fought for six hard and dark years.

In conclusion we hope that this memorandum be given its due and favorable consideration and thanking you.

Disturbances in Kurdistan

I have the honor to report that the debate on last summer's Barzani uprising which has been running intermittently in the Chamber of Deputies for the past two weeks evoked an interesting exchange of remarks on January 19, 1946 between Deputy Majid Mustafa, former Minister Without Portfolio for Kurdish Affairs, and Mustafa al-Umari, present Minister of Interior who is generally giver. the lion's share of the credit for the defeat of Mulla Mustafa.

Deputy Majid Mustafa began his speech by referring to Iraq's general situation and to the Deputies' speeches which denounced the graft prevailing in Iraq.

In discussing the Barzani movement, he stressed the close relationship and friendship binding the Arabs and the Kurds and advocated the abandonment of all sectarian and racial differences in the country. Pausing for a moment, he said that he would not refer to matters which would scandalize certain persons. The Premier and the Minister of Interior urged him to speak. Thereupon Deputy Majid Mustafa stated that he called on a certain minister (cries from Deputies, "who is he?"). Turning to the Premier, he told him, "I speak and you listen and you could imprison me upon leaving Parliament."

Deputy Majid Mustafa then said that there were in Sulaimaniya, two persons, Shaikh Qadir and Shaikh Sa'id, who wished to visit Baghdad and who were arrested upon their arrival at Kirkuk and sent back to Sulaimaniya and imprisoned there. On hearing of this incident, he continued, "I went to inquire after them and to attempt to release them, but the Minister of Interior told him that they were criminals."

He declared by way of contrast that criminal and other acts were in fact being committed in Baghdad and its environs, but the Government fails to investigate them. Yet it accuses the Kurds of being rebellious and upholding new ideologies. (Here, the Interior Minister interpolated and told the Deputy to speak honestly.) The Deputy replied that "the Kurds were said to be leaning towards the Russians and Communists because of their high hopes. If the Interior Minister denies this, then Jamal Baban is the witness. The Kurds are Communists? They who took away the British from the Kirkuk prison and extended great assistance to them. The Kurds were Nazis before that and they are now communists! Why? Do you expect the youths to remain quiet after all this?"

Deputy Majid Mustafa then accused the Minister of Defence of a baseless fear that the revolt of the Kurds might merge with the Azerbaijan movement.

The Minister of Interior then took the floor and said, among other things, that the allegation that the May, 1941 revolt was due to the people's despair was strange indeed. He implicated Deputy Majid Mustafa in the 1941 revolt and remarked that the Deputy's defense of that movement was incorrect. He then made the following statement on the Deputy's relations with the 1941 incident.

When the Regent arrived at Basra, a number of leading citizens got in touch with Majid Mustafa who was then Governor of Amara Liwa and requested him to place himself under the Regent's command at Basra. But, Majid Mustafa refused, and upon his arrival at Baghdad, when asked why he refused to cooperate with the Regent, he replied that he was a Kurd and that he could not do so because the "Kurds would raise Hell" if he dial. As the Minister of Interior touched the subject of the Barzani movement, Deputy Majid Mustafa indicated a desire to leave the Chamber, but the Minister asked him to remain. The Minister then said that Deputy Majid Mustafa once told him that Mulla Mustafa and Shaikh Ahmad were wrong and that he was ready to arrest them. The Minister then observed that the man who could say this has no right to claim that the revolt arose from the people's despair.

The Minister of Interior then accused Deputy Majid Mustafa of partiality towards the Kurds when he was Minister without Portfolio and said in reference to the Kurdish personalities mentioned by the Deputy that these men were then being subjected to investigations and that the investigations had not been completed when they left Sulaimaniya on their way to Baghdad. This ease was of such importance, the Minister added, that it warranted the Advisor to the Ministry of Interior going in person to Sulaimaniya to inquire into the matter on the spot. Still "Deputy Majid Mustafa objects when any one of his friends is subjected to investigation."

The Minister of Interior then spoke of the May, 1941 incident and said that it was not supported by the Iraqi people and that the best Iraqi leaders stood on Britain's side during that incident. Following the outbreak of war, he said, Axis propaganda actively exploited Britain's policy in the Near East. Iraq suffered at the time from poverty and her isolation from the world markets. This situation contributed to the success of Axis propaganda. The Minister of Interior concluded that it was wrong to punish the Iraqis for their lamented part in the 1941 disturbances when it was democratic powers themselves which gave the Nazis the opportunity to disseminate their propaganda in Iraq.

The Dahngi Rasti Kurdish Society

SUBJECT: Transmitting Translation of Pamphlet Issued by the Dahngi Rasti Kurdish Society.

In continuation of the Legation's telegram no. 132 of March 15, 3 p.m., I have the honor to transmit herewith a translation of a pamphlet recently issued by the Dahngi Rasti Kurdish society which appears to have been widely circulated in Baghdad. Inquiries here have brought no information to light as to the composition of the Dahngi Rasti society, but all who have seen the pamphlet agree that it is by far the best thing of its type yet issued by a Kurdish organization.

This pamphlet is of particular significance in that, for the first time, a Kurdish society sets forth the conditions deemed "essential for maintaining peace" with the Iraqi Government. These Kurdish demands are briefly:

1. Establishment of a Kurdish self-governing autonomy within Iraq. It should be noted, however, that the pamphlet makes clear that, while it now considers an autonomy within the state of Iraq most appropriate, it by no means rules out the possibilities of establishing a completely independent Kurdish state.

2. Autonomy will have complete control of educational and judicial matters as well as local administration including health, agriculture and industry.

3. Autonomy will recognize Iraqi Government's current obligation provided that two-thirds of the revenues derived from concessions falling within the autonomy's boundaries are allotted to it alone. This point seems of particular significance inasmuch as the great oil fields of Kirkuk and Mosul are considered by most Kurds as being a part of Kurdistan. Thus, under the arrangements demanded, the proposed Kurdish autonomy would obtain two-thirds of the revenues now obtained by Iraq from these important oil concessions. Naturally no Iraqi Government would consider such a proposal but it is particularly interesting to note that the Kurds are now voicing a demand for a share in Iraq's rich oil revenues. As reported in the Legation's despatch no. 1080 of February 6, Communist pamphlets distributed in the Kirkuk and Mosul districts are seeking to drive home the idea that the profits from the rich oil of Kurdistan should go to the British people.

5. Autonomy shall be represented in the Iraqi Chamber of Deputies in accordance with the autonomy's electoral law and the proportion of its Kurdish inhabitants to the total population of Iraq.

6. The official language in the autonomy's government establishments and schools shall be Kurdish. Arabic, however, will be taught as a second language provided that Kurdish be taught as a second language in all Arabic schools. The proposal that Kurdish be used as a secondary language in all Iraqi Arabic schools seems so far-fetched as to arouse the suspicion that this whole pamphlet has been written by someone with a rather sardonic sense of humor.

7. All employees of the autonomy shall be chosen from its inhabitants, but in the absense of qualified personnel, Iraqis shall be given preference.

8. Autonomy shall have employees in all branches of the central Iraqi Government in proportion to the autonomy's inhabitants, said proportion to be determined by a general census taken for this purpose.

9. Autonomy shall pay 15 per cent of its revenues to the Iraqi Central Government as its share in the central administration.

10. Autonomy shall be administered by a Council of Ministers elected by its House of Representatives from among its membership.

11. Autonomy maintains the right to conclude cultural and economic treaties with any country; may deal with its revenues and resources as it sees fit and grant concessions to any country provided that said concessions are approved by the autonomy's House of Representatives. This point would certainly make an autonomous Kurdistan within Iraq highly desirable to the Russians.

In conclusion it must be said that if the Dahngi Rasti society really speaks for the Kurds and if its demands must be met by the Iraqi Government to maintain peace, the situation is not altogether hopeful.

Document on the Aims & Program of the Party

Discussions have recently increased over the Kurdish question as a result of the Kurdish revolt in the Barzan district and the emancipatory movement of Azerbaijani democrats in Iran. These discussions found their way into the lobbies of the Iraqi Parliament when the subject of the expenditures incurred in connection with the suppression of the Kurdish revolt in Barzan was debated in Parliament. It has therefore become clear to us from foreign and Arab press comments as well as from the Parliamentary debates that the world in general and Iraq in particular are ignorant, or pretend to be ignorant, of many facts relative to Kurdish demands and aspirations. We therefore deem it our duty to present for the consideration of the Arab people and Iraqi Government officials a resume of these demands, or rather a reminder of them since their neglect or feigned neglect led in the past to all the revolts from which Iraq has suffered so much, and which cost the Kurdish and Arab peoples rivers of blood and tears as well as millions of dinars, so badly needed by the country for combating imperialism, ignorance, poverty and disease.

Deputy Abdul Karim al-Uzri said in the Chamber of Deputies that denial of the existence of the Kurdish question in Iraq does not help to solve that question, and that the Government must face the facts and must endeavor to find a positive solution for the issue, guided by other countries inhabited by various peoples such as Switzerland, Canada et cetera. The Kurds must be told, Deputy Abdul Karim al-Uzri went on to say, that the Arabs do not intend to Arabize or annihilate them. Rather, the Kurds must be made to understand that the Arabs wish the Kurds the same progress and prosperity as they wish for themselves.

This is the first time we have heard a free Arab expressing candid and rational views on an issue upon the solution of which the fate and future of Iraq depends. As the Honorable Deputy explained, the Kurdish problem cannot be solved by massacre and persecution. We may add that this problem cannot be solved by pacts, such as the Sa'adabad Pact or by appointing Majid Mustafa as Minister in the place of Jalal Baban or Umar Nadhmi in the place of Tawfiq Wahbi, or by placating this feudal lord or that influential Kurd. The Kurds are not interested in these or other persons. They have nationalistic demands which they want to realize.

The Kurdish people possess - they feel and believe they possess - all the qualities for becoming a nation enjoying and occupying a position in the community of nations in spite of all the persecutions which the Kurds have and are suffering at the hands of the Governments under which ill-luck has placed them, they have maintained not only their cultural and linguistic unity but also their nationalistic and revolutionary energy during the long years of their bitter ordeal.

The first aspect relates to the formation of a united, independent Kurdish State in the Middle East.

The second is local, namely, it relates to the condition in which the Kurds live and the rights which they enjoy in the countries to which they owe allegiance.

Inasmuch as the examination of the first aspect is now outside the scope of our subject, let us revert to the second aspect. In this connection, it is not felt necessary to dwell on the well known miserable condition in which the Kurds are now living and on the Chauvinistic policy which the Iraqi, Turkish and Persian governments are now applying on the Kurds as well as the oppression, persecution and massacres from which they are suffering at the hands of these governments.

We therefore briefly indicate below the conditions which we feel are essential for maintaining peace between ourselves and the Government under which we live. In enumerating these conditions, we feel confident that their realization would, in no circumstances, prejudice the interests of the Arab, Turkish and Persian peoples. It would, on the contrary, bring about understanding and collaboration between ourselves and these peoples and would finally end the intrigues of the imperialists and their henchmen. Recognition of the natural rights of the Kurds will make more effective our common struggle against imperialism, disease, ignorance and poverty.

The foregoing are our national demands which we present for your consideration. They represent our local national pact. We have promised God and our nation to abide by this pact at all cost. We submit these outspoken demands for the attention of the Iraqi Government, the press and the thinkers. We frankly tell them that no measures other than the foregoing would be acceptable to the Kurdish people. Compliance with these demands would not, under any circumstances, prejudice Iraqi unity as is alleged by chauvinists and agents of imperialism. It would, on the contrary, strengthen the friendly relations existing between the Kurds and the Arabs and contribute to their unity on the basis of recognition by one people of the rights of the other. Such are the bases of sound unity.

Manifesto of the Rizgari Kurdish Party

SUBJECT: Transmitting a Translation of a Manifesto from the Razgari Kurdish Party.

In continuation of the Legation's despatch no. 1135 of March 14, 1946, I have the honor to transmit herewith a translation of a Manifesto from the Razgari Kurdish Party which deals with the statements reportedly made at a press conference in Cairo by Prime Minister Tawfiq As-Suwaidi on March 25, 1946. (See Legation's despatch no. 1159 of March 29, 1946.)

It will be noted that the Razgari Manifesto takes exception to the Prime Minister's "false and fabricated" statement that there is no Kurdish question in Iraq; points out that "In accordance with a plan prepared by the Imperialists," the Prime Minister "minimized the number of Kurds in Iraq in order to prove their political insignificance;" asserts that the equal rights enjoyed by Kurds in Iraq are those of hunger, persecution, and disease; declares that "the Barzani movement, led by the great nationalist fighter, Mulla Mustafa al-Barzani, is a popular democratic movement - supported by the Kurdish masses of Iraq because they regard it as a means of salvation and emancipation from imperialism and reactionary methods of government;" and concludes with a vicious attack on "the common enemy - British imperialism" which is described as stifling the struggle of the peoples of the Near East for "democratic government and self-determination."

It is becoming more evident that the Razgari Kurdish Party consists of a group of Kurdish "fellow travelers" resident in Baghdad whose interest in the overthrow of "British Imperialism" seems to be at least on a par with its concern for Kurdish rights.

The evil intentions of the ruling classes have once more become clearly manifest in the statements with the Prime Minister made to press correspondents in Cairo on March 25, 1946 on the subject of existing conditions in Iraq. These statements were false and fabricated, some of which have already been criticized by the free nationalist newspapers which exposed the statements' fallacious interpretation and description of the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of Alliance, the evacuation of the British imperialist troops, the suspicious trips of Nuri As-Sa'id, et cetera.

We therefore feel that we must answer some of the fabrications relating to the Kurdish movement. This movement has not been clearly and sufficiently reported by the free press as a living national issue in order to enlighten public opinion on the scandalous imperialist intrigues. The first sentence in the Prime Minister's statement, which he made in accordance with a plan prepared by the imperialists minimized the number of Kurds in Iraq in order to prove their political insignificance. Indeed, with one word or stroke of pen the Prime Minister annihilates one million Kurds who are still living in Iraqi Kurdistan. Strangely enough, the 1930 official census estimated the Kurdish inhabitants of Iraq at 800,000. Many Kurds were not included in this census because the Kurdish tribes felt the census was being taken for the purpose of military conscription or exorbitant taxes. The 1930 census estimated Iraq's population at 4,000,000. We do not know however, on what basis the Premier reduced the number of the Kurdish inhabitants to less than two-thirds their registered number, namely to 500,000, when Iraq's population has since increased almost to double its number. It is evident that no plague or great pestilence has swept Iraqi Kurdistan since 1930. If other diseases, hunger and toil have killed some of our people, these have likewise done away with some of the other inhabitants of Iraq who lived in similar conditions. It is also evident that the Kurds who registered in the 1930 census have not renounced their Kurdish nationality in favor of another nationality. Anyhow, these are the methods of a miserable imperialist who stands on the edge of the grave.

The Prime Minister then describes Kurdish conditions in Iraq and says that the Kurds enjoy the same rights as those enjoyed by all other Iraqis. Yes, if these were the rights of denial and hunger, the rights of ignorance, illiteracy and disease, and the rights of shackled liberties and national persecution, then we could say that we do enjoy all of these rights, thanks to the ruling classes and their imperialist overlords. The toiling and exploited Iraqi masses undoubtedly join us in this view. The plight of our peasants who are treated like medieval serfs, the prevalence of ignorance in all our_ districts, the diseases which are gnawing at the bones of our people; denial to study our own language and to have one open political newspaper to express our hopes and aspirations and to speak on behalf of our struggling and toiling people, all of these are practical testimonies of our enjoyment of these rights. Moreover, whenever a free and proud person advocates reform, he is rewarded with persecution and the dark prison. If necessary, the watchful army and police forces are ready to destroy our villages, to kill our women and children, and to persecute hundreds of our toiling people. Yet, the Prime Minister denies even the existence and cause of the Kurdish people. But we assert that the Kurds have an existence, despite the imperialist overlords.

There will be no solution to this problem if the Kurdish people will not enjoy the right of self-determination in all their districts. This will be possible only by destroying the structure of imperialism and reaction in these parts and by obtaining the inevitable democratic rights to enable us to make our demands and to organize our ranks.

Is it not strange on the premier's part to describe the Barzani movement in such an untruthful manner. He first described it as a sectarian movement, then as a personal movement by which Mulla Mustafa aimed to increase his influence, and later said that the Kurds did not wish to have the Government administration function in their districts. All these contradictions prove to the world the stupidity of these descriptions and allegations.

The Barzani movement, led by the great nationalist fighter Mulla Mustafa Al-Barzani, is a popular democratic movement which combats imperialism and reactionary governments. It aims at introducing universal democratic reforms and attaining just national rights. This movement resulted from the interference of reactionary governmental authorities with the peaceful compatriots in this sensitive district. The movement was supported by the Kurdish masses of Iraq because they regarded it as a means of salvation and emancipation from imperialism and reactionary methods of Government. The Kurdish masses regarded the movement as a revolutionary struggle of liberation. The national Kurdish forces did not escape into Iran, as the Prime Minister maintains. They withdrew into liberated Kurdistan in Iran to save innocent blood. We have reiterated in our paper "Razgari", as well as our Communist comrades in their paper "Shorsh", the organ of the Communist Party in Iraq Kurdistan, the truth about the Barzani movement and the intrigues of criminal British imperialists and of their stooges, the reactionary ruling classes.

Following these statements which misrepresented the truth about the Kurdish movement in Iraq, Mr. Richard Windham, NEWS OF THE WORLD correspondent, obtained new and important statements from the Prime minister which promote the plans of the criminal British imperialists and strengthen their position in the Middle East generally and Iraq particularly. The Premier stated that "If the Iraqi troops will not be able to suppress the Kurd's revolt in Iraq, in the event of the outbreak of such a revolt of course, he would ask England to implement her obligations by despatching a military expedition to help our troops". The Prime minister believes that England will not wait until she is "asked". Indeed, this is what the British imperialists want. In fact, all these reports about Kurdish revolts and eruption of volcanoes in Kurdistan are nothing less than disturbing propaganda coming from imperialistic sources to create an atmosphere which will necessitate the stationing of British forces in the Middle East or reinforcing them with new men. This is being done to distract the people's attention from their sacred national aspirations, namely immediate and complete evacuation of foreign troops.

Obviously, the presence of these British forces is not only for the purpose of suppressing the Kurdish movement but for annihilating the Arab movements of liberation also. We appeal to all our Arab brethren in the sister countries not to deviate from the course of their sacred struggle, namely getting rid of imperialism as soon as possible. We appeal to our Iraqi brethren to join us in resisting the common enemy - British imperialism. The peaceful Kurdish people do not revolt for nothing. Indeed, they are urged by their just demands which are similar to the demands for which the noble Arab people are struggling, namely, liberation from imperialism and attainment of democratic government and right of self-determination.

In conclusion, we do not forget to answer Da'ud Al-Haidari's comments in the Senate on the Prime Minister's statements to the effect that he (Al-Haidari) felt that the Kurdish position in Iraq was not brought about by the British occupation but by their voluntary union with Iraq. He forgets the blood of more than a million Kurds which was shed in Turkey, Iran and Iraq for the right of self-determination and liberation and emancipation. Is there any one who denies the fact that imperialist interests in the Middle East have dismembered the Kurdish people? only a silly, ignorant, and hired person would deny this. Da'ud Al-Haidari may be rightful in denying the existence of a Kurdish cause and in regarding Mulla Mustafa's revolt against the Government as an individual act, because he is a loyal agent of British imperialism in British petroleum companies and because he obediently follows their counsel and advice. Such utterances and statements, coming as they do from agents, are not strange because these agents express the wishes and plans of their overlords in London. Let them realize that the day of their annihilation is not distant.

Racial Disturbances in Khuzistan

I have the honor to refer to the Consulate's Telegram No. 53 of July 16, 1946, and to amplify my report concerning the recent events in Khuzistan. Vice Consul Schott and I obtained the information during a visit to Abadan on July 16th. Mr. Schott will remain temporarily at the Abadan TWA Base to report on any further developments.

From the overall point of view the clash in Khuzistan is a part of the "bloodless war" in process in Iran between the British and Russians. Through the Tudeh Party the Russians are encroaching on a province that was formerly a British preserve. The British are retaliating through the AIOC and the use of the "Democratic Arab Tribal League". The disorders that occurred probably surprised both parties by their intensity, and both are trying to turn the situation to the other's detriment.

Strikes lead by the Tudeh Party against the AIOC in May and June resulted in substantial concessions to the workers. The events immediately leading up to the rioting on July 14th started July 6 when the Tudeh presented additional demands to the AIOC, including pay for work on Friday, higher pay in general, workers' benefits such as housing, recreational facilities, etc. The company requested time to consider the matter and was given a week. The AIOC maintained that it could not grant pay for work on Friday until the Tehran government rendered an interpretation of the minimum wage provisions of the new labor law. Throughout the week there was agitation by the Tudeh. This was particularly bad at Agha Jari, an AIOC field. At the request of the company three Tudeh leaders there were arrested thus giving the party an additional pretext for striking.

The Arab League was planned at a gathering of tribal leaders on June 11 and formally organized at a mass meeting near Khorramshahr on June 23. Its program calls for opposition to the Tudeh and support of an autonomous Khuzistan. There was considerable discussion as to what name to adopt. The word "Democratic" was inserted to indicate support of Qavam's Democratic Party. The Arabs have long hoped for British support against the Persians, and have periodically agitated for an autonomous Khuzistan (See Despatch No. 342 of June 17, 1943, from Baghdad). The leaders of the Tribal League were Yusef Koweiti, Sheikh Haji Ali Haddad and Hussein Ghazi, all large contractors for the AIOC, and Sheikh Zorai, the most prominent Sheikh on Abadan Island, and Sheikh Taryak. Since its organization the Arab League has been holding regular meetings and has established headquarters in Abadan and Khorramshahr. The meetings resulted in small-scale clashes with Tudeh supporters but not in serious disorders.

Among the agitators for an autonomous Khuzistan is Sheikh Chassib Khazaal, son of the old Sheikh of Mohammarrah. The headquarters of the Arab League in Khorramshahr is in a building owned by a sister of Sheikh Chassib. He was present at Khorramshahr throughout the disturbances, and would probably like to take control of the League, but the other Sheikhs do not relish his leadership, and it is opposed by the British.

The general strike throughout Khuzistan began Sunday morning, July 14th. It was technically illegal since the Tudeh did not apply to the proper government committees for permission to strike. Tudeh pickets seized control of all highways and effectively closed down the refinery. Vehicles were stopped and passengers ejected; British were roughly handled; parties of Tudeh adherents visited the bungalows of British employees and removed any servants who had dared to disobey the general strike order. Strikes also occurred in Ahwaz, Haft Ket, Masjidi-i-Sulaiman, Agha Jari, and Mashur. Throughout the day the Tudeh became more truculent.

The Governor General of Khuzistan declared martial law in the province and appointed Major Fateh, Commanding Officer at Abadan, as Military Governor of the area. The troops were available, an insufficient number to maintain effective order. Both of the above officials are considered anti-Tudeh and closely linked to the AIOC.

Rioting started in the town of Abadan about 8:30. Members of the "Democratic Arabic Tribal League" displaying their flag over their headquarters were attacked by Tudeh followers. The building was burned, and Sheikh Haji Haddad was seized by the mob and murdered. Later his house was broken into, his wife killed, and the building rifled. Tudeh leaders claim that a large number of eases of arms and ammunition was discovered as well as correspondence between the British and Haddad clearly showing British support of the Arab League. The British deny the charge. The Tudeh members attacked the beheaded Hussein Ghazi and looted his warehouse. Sheikh Zorai was beaten but managed to escape. Any Arabs found were assaulted. The Bazaar section of the town was burnt. Since the Arabs were unprepared to live mostly outside the town, they suffered considerably at first. The Arabs quickly rallied, however, and turned on the Tudeh with home-made weapons. Fighting soon swung in their favor, and the Tudeh supporters were driven back into their headquarters. The Army attempted to restore order and fired on the mob of both Tudeh and Arabs. The troops cooperated in general with the Arabs in subduing the Tudeh. By 10-30 p.m. most of the rioting had ceased. The number of dead is conservatively placed at 40 and that of wounded at 200. Casualties were probably larger than the number recorded since the Tudeh removed its own injured. The lower class ruffians of the town, rather than the Tudeh, are held mainly responsible for the latter stages of the rioting.

Leaders of the Tudeh were called into major Fateh's office about 10 p.m. ostensibly to negotiate for an end to the strike, and asked to account for the disorders. The Arabs were blamed. The main leaders of the Tudeh, including Najafi, Hussein Tarbiat, and Abdulla Zadeh, were then arrested. It was impossible to locate another leader, Molehi. This demoralized the Tudeh considerably and was an important factor in curbing the rioting.

At Khorramshahr the Tudeh tried to enforce the general strike but was not successful. About 25 members were arrested and the laborers returned to work Monday. Communications with Abadan were cut off until the afternoon of the 16th.

On the 15th reinforcements arrived from Ahwaz, but the total number of troops still does not exceed 500. Colonel Hejazi, Commanding officer of troops in Khuzistan, and the Governor General of the province arrived in an AIOC plane. During the day Arabs from the surrounding area converged on Abadan. Bands armed mainly with clubs and daggers patrolled the roads leading into town, and grave danger appeared of a general onslaught of the Tudeh. Major Fateh asked them to refrain from violence and promised that the Tudeh leaders would be punished.

From Tehran on July 15 in a special plane came a mission with full powers from the Prime Minister, led by Prince Firouz, accompanied by Dr. Aramesh and five Tudeh Party leaders. Prince Firouz is considered by the British as a definite supporter of the Tudeh. He acted as spokesman for Qavam during the negotiations for the evacuation of Northern Iran and the discussions of the Azerbaijan question.

Sir Clermont Skrine, Additional Counselor of the British Embassy at Tehran, who had been on his way to Abadan to discuss Indian labor difficulties, also arrived on the 15th. He went first to Ahwaz and then flew to Abadan with the Governor General.

The night of the 15th passed quietly. On the morning of the 16th demonstrations were staged by the Tudeh for the release of their leaders. Prince Firouz called in the arrested men and after a long discussion placed them at liberty on bail and on the understanding that work at the AIOC would be resumed with the 2 p.m. shift. He assured the company and the Arabs that they would be punished and stated he was acting solely to secure the resumption of work. The Arabs were also assured that there would be no more rioting.

Prince Firouz presented the company with a letter, which he signed in the name of the Prime Minister, stating, according to Colonel Underwood, Security Officer for the AIOC, "you will" grant Friday pay, consider further increases in pay, and "cooperate with the government". The company is discussing its reply and may make an appeal through the British Ambassador in Tehran over this arbitrary action. It is probable that the wages for the six-day work week will be increased so as to compensate for no pay on Friday.

The Prince tried to force the resignation of Major Fateh and characterized his handling of the entire situation as "clumsy". He allegedly staged an exchange of shots resulting in the wounding of a sentry and then abusively blamed it on the Arabs and the Major's incompetence. Colonel Underwood and the Governor General persuaded Major Fateh not to resign. The incident illustrates also the close ties of these two officials with the AIOC. Prince Firouz returned to Tehran the evening of the 16th much to the relief of the British.

At 2 p.m. the workers for that shift began returning slowly to the refinery but the company stated it would take a week to resume full production.

Quiet gradually returned to the Abadan area on the 17th. work was resumed but with obvious reluctance on the part of the Tudeh members. Fears of a general Arab uprising receded. Colonel Underwood predicted that further disturbances were unlikely until martial law was relaxed and the reinforcements from Ahwaz returned to their barracks.

Sir Clermont Skrine stated that the Tudeh, backed by the Russians, organized the strike with the object of imposing its will on Khuzistan and of ruling the area by terror. The party intends to secure the appointment of pro-Tudeh officials, and to control the Majlis elections. He stated that Russians also hoped the British would have to call in troops to protect the refinery, and thus ruin their whole moral position in Iran. Sir Clermont added as his personal opinion that the British would be obliged to do this as a last resort to protect the refinery. As evidence of the careful Tudeh planning he produced a copy of a neatly printed leaflet distributed by the Tudeh on the 14th. It called on "all the lovers of freedom" to rise and utterly crush the hirelings of the Colonizer. Here in a blank space had been inserted the names of the Governor General, Major Fateh and Military Governor, and the director of the recently opened Labor Office. The plan failed because of the unexpectedly strong Arab opposition and the action of the Military Governor. The Tudeh are now, with the active aid of Prince Firouz, trying to blame the entire affair on the Arab League, and to prove that the British supplied the Arabs with arms. He is very much afraid that the Arabs will not stand for the treatment they have received and that all the small and large sheikhs in the area will gather and decide to wipe out the Tudeh. The Arabs are allegedly well armed and could cope easily with the Army. He mentioned the number of 3,000 now in the vicinity. Sir Clermont is obviously worried over blame being placed on the Arabs and British and also over the possibility of a general Arab uprising in retaliation with attendant disorders. He has warned the Governor General of this possibility.

Colonel Underwood, Security Officer of the AIOC, stressed the blame of the Tudeh for the illegal strike and condemned the freeing of their leaders. He feels the Arabs will not tolerate the treatment received and that there is grave danger of a general attack. Once Arabs start looting it is impossible to guess where they will stop. He denied that any arms were supplied by the British and maintained that the Arabs are noted smugglers, had purchased arms from troops formerly in the area, and had been cacheing arms for many years. Information from other sources confirms previous reports that Colonel Underwood gave undercover support to the Arab League, and it is entirely probable that he at least "assisted" the Arabs in obtaining arms. Colonel Underwood believes that the strike was only the first of a series of moves which the Tudeh are planning against the company. He is troubled over the long range cumulative effect, and pointed out the demoralizing results of this type of "warfare" on the more than 2,000 British scattered throughout Khuzistan.

Colonel Willoughby, British Consul, at Khorramshahr and member of the Indian Political Service, stated that the strike had been directed from Russia as part of a general campaign against the AIOC. He stressed the fact that continued production from Abadan was essential to Britain and her armed forces. He also described the strike as only one move in a vicious war the Russians are waging to put the refinery out of commission. He stated that both the Russian Consul and Vice Consul at Ahwaz are extremely active and continuously touring the province trying to win sympathy from both the Arabs and the Persians. With regard to British aid to the Arab Party, he maintained: Britain is following a policy of non-intervention; many sheikhs come to his office and ask him for advice or support; and he replies invariably that they should cooperate with the local officials and obey their orders. It should be pointed out that the present incumbents are pro-British. He denied flatly that arms were being supplied but admitted a "few men in the AIOC" may have given encouragement to the Arabs. Colonel Willoughby recognizes the possibility of an Arab uprising but does not believe one will occur now.

The gravity with which the British regard the situation should be emphasized. They are perturbed not so much by the general strike which has been temporarily settled, but by the feeling that it was only the first move in a campaign inspired by Moscow. The immediate object is disruption of production and the ultimate goal to face Britain with the alternatives of stationing troops in the area or losing control of an indispensable oil producing area. It was also apparent that the British are undecided on what immediate policy to pursue. The AIOC and Colonel Underwood appear to favor a more forceful policy toward the Tudeh and greater reliance on the Arab League than the representatives of the British Government who were present are inclined to support. The joint interests of the United States and Britain were frequently mentioned. For the moment, both the Tudeh and AIOC are maneuvering for position and seeking to escape responsibility for the riots. An important question is what course the Tudeh will take in face of the demonstrated strength and unanimity of the Arabs, and whether the strike will be construed in the public mind as an unexpected set-back to the Tudeh or a further victory over the company.

Abadan Strike News

Enclosure to Despatch no. 36 from American Consulate, Basra, Iraq, dated July 17, 1946.

Before we give you the background and latest details of the General Strike in the Company's areas, you will be relieved to know that Head office have been requested by radio to inform all relatives of staff that there have been no British staff casualties to date. Mr. Martin Clarke of A.I.C. has been mildly stabbed in the back, but has nothing to worry about.

The strike which broke out in Abadan in the early hours of Sunday 14th July, terminated a week of intense negotiation between Company and Union representatives. The main demand of the Union was for pay for Fridays.

The Company pledged itself to abide by the Iranian Government's interpretation of the Labour Law; the Government, however, was not prepared to commit itself until a decision had been reached on the minimum living wage proposals.

Labour leaders while agreeing that the matter should be left open until the whole subject had been investigated by the Government expressed doubts as to whether they could hold the more extreme members of the Union and prevent a strike.

Rumours of a strike were circulating all day Saturday, and Sunday morning found all approaches to the refinery picketed and a general strike proclaimed in the Company areas. The calling of a strike at this juncture was illegal and cut across existing agreements between the Company and the Union, and infringed the Articles of the new Labour Law.

During the night precautionary measures had been taken, and military guards detailed for posting at important points. All. efforts to contact Union headquarters had failed. The following morning, when it was seen that the strike was inevitable, military detachments took up positions arranged overnight.

The pickets on Sunday morning were very pleased with themselves and in many instances stopped vehicles and ejected passengers and drivers. In some cases Britishers were handled roughly, and many vehicles were seized.

By this time news began to come in of strikes in Ahwaz, M.I.S., Haft Kel, Agha Jari, Mashur; but Gach Saren remained normal. This last was no doubt due to the tough time the Union leaders experienced when they tried to sort out one of the local Khans last week. Generally, the situation in the first mentioned areas was reported quiet.

The Governor General of Khuzistan, declared Martial Law throughout the Province, and appointed Major Fateh, O.C. Troops in Abadan, to be the Military Governor of this area. He gave the Company every assurance that there were adequate good quality troops available to maintain security, and expressed his determination to clear up the situation if it deteriorated.

Essential. services were maintained by British staff and two benches were kept running.

An incident occurred at 9 a.m. at No. 8 Jetty, when Mr. Evered was prevented from starting a launch by one of the men in the picket. Mr. Evered pushed him aside, whereupon the man complained that he had been kicked. Evered was taken into protective custody by the troops on the Jetty, but was released when an officer arrived later.

W.J. Turener, Commercial Superintendent, visited Tudeh Party H.Q. in the bazaar during the day and obtained permission to collect one day's supply of food from the Bulk Stores. He was therefore able to keep restaurants and^s canteens supplied and arrange bread distribution. Volunteers came from all quarters to man the kitchens and serve food.

As the weather warmed toward mid-day the pickets on No. 16 Jetty enjoyed a quick dip in the pool of the Seamen's Institution.

Throughout the day Major Fateh attempted to establish a Military Control in the area without having recourse to violence. It was only towards evening that the efforts of his troops appeared to become effective. Many householders were visited by gangs who called to remove bungalow servants who had ignored the order to strike. On the whole, the day passed without any major incident.

A curfew was originally announced, but was subsequently withdrawn when the Military Governor felt that it would be difficult to enforce. It now takes effect as from tonight between the hours of 11 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. two fires broke out in the Town area but were got under by Company fire engines with Iranian crews. During the night there were many serious clashes between Iranians, Arabs, and Military, and further fires broke out.

Casualties admitted to the Company Hospital overnight numbered roughly 170; to date there have been 22 deaths. The bulk of the injuries were due to clubbing, although there were several knife and gunshot wounds. Surgeons Davis and Houlding were operating all night assisted by Doctor Bodman and the theatre staffs. Doctor Owen and four Iranian M.O.'s were also on duty during the emergency. The S.M.O., Dr. Turner, divided his time between the hospital and the General Management, and among other duties ensured the security of the hospital and its staff.

Prominent anti-Tudeh personalities killed were Haji Haddad and members of his family, and his friend Haji Hussein Gazi, both prominent merchants. Sheikh Zorai, leading member of the Arab League, was beaten up. There is no reason to suppose that the matter will rest here although the Military authorities are taking vigorous steps to prevent another outbreak. Further incidents, if any, will be confined to the bazaar which has been isolated from the Company area by a cordon of troops.

Reinforcements have arrived from Ahwaz and further reinforcements from Teheran are expected tonight. Colonel Hejazi, commanding troops in Khuzistan, flew from Ahwaz to Abadan this morning and is remaining in the area. He has only recently been appointed to the command and his reputation for handling dangerous situations is second to none. Major Fateh, the Military Governor of Abadan, has pursued a very firm line despite the threatening developments of yesterday and last night, and has succeeded in establishing Martial Law in. the area. He has already arrested five of the leading Union representatives (non-Company employees) and some 59 others. Included among the former is NAJAFI the local Tudeh Party leader and a prolific contributor to "ZAFAR", the Tudeh Party newspaper.

At the time of writing, the only incidents reported come from the bazaar. Sporadic shooting has been heard at intervals during the day. The Military by these tactics have persuaded would be trouble makers to keep their heads down.

Tribal War in Iraq

I have the honor to report that on August 3, 1946 an armed conflict occurred between men of the large Shammar Tribe and members of the Albu Matyoot Tribe. The Shammar suffered more than 200 casualties and the Albu Matyoot 120. Reports from the North. and press accounts of the incident list casualties as considerably higher but in view of the notorious vagueness of Arab Shaikhs as to numbers and the natural tendency to exaggerate losses in tribal warfare, both the Legation and British Intelligence feel reasonably confident that the total dead and wounded did not exceed 350 persons. Desultory fighting continued between the tribes until August 10, 1946, when Mudhaffar Ahmed, able and energetic Mutasarrif of Mosul, jailed the leading Shammar Shaikhs Sfuq, Ahmed and Mishaan.

Bad blood between the powerful, numerous but loosely organized Shammar and smaller Albu Matyoot has existed for some time and minor altercations among their members over grazing and water rights have occurred sporadically for years. Their recent clashes however, greatly surpass in magnitude the usual tribal strife.

It appears that on August 3, 1946 a party of five hundred Shammar decided that it would ride in to the Albu Matyoot villages and punish the residents for having driven their flocks into what they regarded as Shammar territory. Somehow, word of this movement reached the Matyoot in advance, and they successfully ambushed the Shammar war party on the outskirts of the village of Al-Badi which lies southwest of the town of Balad Sinjar in the Mosul Liwa. Although the Shammar lost almost two hundred men in this ambush, they obtained reinforcements, drove through the Matyoot and burned four of their villages. According to Abdul Karim, Secretary of Sfuq, Paramount Shaikh of the Shammar Tribe, the Shammar inflicted considerable losses on the women and children of the Matyoot in these villages, burning numbers of them alive in their houses.

As spasmodic clashes occurred between the tribes during the following week, and there was a general atmosphere of dangerous disorder, the Mutasarrif of Mosul decided to take direct and drastic action. He thereupon arrested the leading Shammar Shaikhs who are still confined, but who are unlikely to be formally indicted or tried. With the arrest of the Shammar leaders, the police had no difficulty in restoring order in the region, and now that the Mutasarrif has clearly demonstrated his courage and strength, most local observers believe that there will be no further trouble, at least for some time.

The Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP)

SUBJECT: Transmitting Five Documents Received from the Kurdish Democratic Party.

In continuation of the Legation's despatch No. 1406 of August 24, 1946, I have the honor to transmit herewith translations of five documents recently received by the Legation from the Kurdish Democratic Party which appears to be a newly formed union of the leading political groups in Iraqi Kurdistan. These documents consist of:

l.) An Appeal from General Mustafa Al-Barzani in which he urges all Arabs and Kurds of Iraq to stand together and fight "the imperialist and reactionary forces which combine to sap the life blood of my people and subject my sacred country to indignity". The erstwhile Mulla Mustafa's new found affection for the Arabs of Iraq represents quite a departure, and his welcome to them as "brethren" is interesting even if untrue.

2) The Program of the Kurdish Democratic Party describes it as a "peoples party" defending the interests of the "working classes, farmers, intellectuals" etc. It will be noted that the Party's Political, Economic, and Cultural aims are set forth in an able and orderly manner; and that among its principal objectives are (a) the formation of a Federal Kurdish State within Iraq; (b) government ownership of practically everything; (c) compulsory free education; and (d) the separation of church and state.

3) The National Charter of the Kurdish Democratic Party which traces the disappointments of the Kurds resulting from the peace treaties which followed World War I; and pledges a continued struggle (again oddly enough) by the side of "Arab brethren", to achieve a "free federal democratic state" in spite of the machinations of imperialistic enemies of the people.

4) A "Declaration Made by the Congress of the Kurdish Democratic Party". This document indicates that the Kurdish Democratic Party now consists of the recently dissolved Rizgari and Iraqi Kurdish Communist parties and the "Z.K. Society". The declaration states that it was agreed by the Congress that Kurdish Democratic Party should be the only Kurdish Party in Iraq; and that there should be close cooperation with the Kurdish Democratic Party in Mahabad.

5) An "Appeal of the Congress" which interestingly enough is signed by its "Political Bureau". This document points out that the strength of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Iraq is the only assurance of a federal Kurdish Government in this country; and urges all Kurds to continue their struggle towards this goal.

Little is known in Baghdad of the Kurdish Democratic Party. Indications are, however, that it is relatively strong and well organized union of previously active Kurdish groups; that Mulla Mustafa has given it his blessing and is in fact a member; and that communist influence in the party is strong.

Appeal from the Party against imperialism

Enclosure No. 1 to Despatch No. 1434 of September 17, 1946 from American Legation, Baghdad.

APPEAL FROM GENERAL MUSTAFA AL-BARZANI, LEADER OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF THE KURDS OF IRAQ - SUPPORTING THE IRAQI KURDISH DEMOCRATIC PARTY - FIGHT IMPERIALISM AND ITS AGENTS.

As a member of the Iraqi people fighting for its liberty and true independence, I have all along supported the ranks of the brave Iraqi people, Kurds and Arabs, in their struggle against foreign imperialism as represented by the Iraqi Regime maintained by a group of hired, despotic and reactionary elements.

I have never and will never fight the Iraqi people of whom I am one. But I have fought and will fight the imperialist and reactionary forces which combine to sap the lifeblood of my people and subject my sacred country to indignity. I address this appeal to the Arab and Kurdish peoples alike so as to unite their efforts in the common struggle for the liberation of the country from the common enemy, imperialism and its agents, so that each may lead on with his own land a free and happy life in brotherly cooperation with the other.

I am proud to share the feelings of all the national democratic parties recently formed in Iraq in opposing the mean imperialist machinations.

Provisions of the National Charter of the Kurdish Democratic Party

1. We struggle by political means and any other possible way for the organization of a federal democratic State in Iraqi Kurdistan, comprising the Liwas of Mosul, Erbil, Kirkuk, Sulaimaniya and Khanaqin. A Constitutional Assembly directly elected by the Kurdish people and by ballot, will draw up its constitution and appoint its president.

2. The Federal Kurdish Democratic Government derives its power from the people through an elected Parliament. The executive and judiciary will be independent from each other.

3. The Federal Kurdistan State will be free to enter into treaties of alliance or friendship with the Kurdistan and Azerbaijan Governments in Iran. Also to ratify political treaties and commercial and cultural agreements with democratic States.

4. The Federal Kurdistan Democratic State allows the people living within its frontiers the freedom of meeting, publication, political parties, language, worship and protects for the individual person freedom and freedom of ownership.

5. Appointments to government posts will be made according to educational, cultural and technical qualifications. The administration of cities and Qadhas will be controlled by an administrative council elected by the city inhabitants and headed by a president appointed by the central executive authority. The municipal administration in cities and Qadhas will be under municipal councils elected by the inhabitants.

6. Railways, land and waterways, forests, mines, arms and ordnance factories, and shores will be the property of the State only.

7. State finance will be controlled by the Central Public Treasury and will consist of fair and legal taxes from customs and excise duties and revenues of public properties, and from income tax based on a progressive scale. Establishment of private banks is forbidden. One Central State bank will be opened.

8. Will introduce labor laws defining contract conditions between employers and workers. The Government will recognize workers' unions and their cooperative societies for production and consumption. The government will endeavor to develop vocational and technical education and to construct establishments for the purpose. It will endeavor to raise the standard of industry and popularize mechanized agriculture. It aims at replacing the agricultural conditions imposed on privately owned lands by fairer conditions which would alleviate the burden of the producing class (Fellahin). It will distribute State lands to small farmers on the basis of the small ownership.

9. Education in elementary and intermediate schools will be free and compulsory. Cultural institutions will be established in accordance with a general educational program based upon the social, economic, political, party, administrative, judicial, technical and literary requirements.

Program of the Kurdish Democratic Party

Enclosure No. 2 to Despatch No. 1434 of September 17, 1946 from American Legation, Baghdad.

Complete independence of Kurdistan. This goal is to be attained by the following means:

a - To struggle for the formation of a Federal State in Iraq to be the Federal Democratic State of Kurdistan.

b - The formation of the Federal Kurdistan State is based on a Federal Charter to be ratified by representatives of the Iraqi Government and Kurdish politicians.

c - The Federal Kurdistan State is free to ratify treaties of union, alliance or friendship with the Kurdistan Government in Iran.

d - Kurdistan State is free to ratify treaties of union, alliance or friendship with any of the democratic countries.

e - Kurdistan State will comprise the Mosul, Erbil, Kirkuk, Silaimaniya and Khanaqin Liwas.

f - The National Constitutional Assembly elected by a direct ballot by the Kurdish people in Iraq, will elect the head of the Federal Kurdistan State and enact its constitutional law.

g - The Federal Kurdish State will not submit to colonization by any foreign State nor accept any form of trusteeship or protection from any country.

h - Kurdistan State will endeavor to accede to international treaties on economic, cultural and labor affairs.

a - The Party will endeavor to secure government ownership of all arms and war materials and their industries, as well as forests, beaches, land and waterways, railways and mines.

b - It will endeavor to establish a Central State bank and prohibit the institution of banks by companies or individuals.

e - It will endeavor to exterminate such companies as monopolize merchandise and consumer goods and recognize as legal the government and popular measures taken to declare the bankruptcy of such firms.

a - The Party will endeavor to enact legislation defining contract conditions between employers and laborers.

b - The Party will endeavor to lay down the basis for wages for industrial labor, government services, the various branches of industrial production, public works and agricultural laborers, thus insuring minimum wages sufficient to meet necessities of life.

c - The Party will struggle for the establishment of labor unions and organizations.

d - The Party will endeavor to make all health institutions and services open to all and free of charge, and will give particular attention to preventive medicine.

e - The Party will endeavor to develop and popularize cooperative societies for production and consumption.

f - The Party will endeavor to place the municipal administration of towns in the hands of municipal councils elected by the inhabitants; the administration of villages and rural districts will be under the central. board of Mukhtars (Headmen).

g - The Party will_ endeavor to secure equality of rights and obligations between men and women.

b - The Party will endeavor to establish secondary and high educational institutions to meet the economic, political, military, judicial, technical and social requirements.

c - The Party will endeavor to establish athletic clubs under the administration of schools, institutions, labor associations and cooperative societies.

d - The Party will endeavor to establish institutes for music, literature, stage acting and cinemas.

e - The Party will endeavor to establish kindergartens, encourage the boy scouts' movement in schools and touring activities.

a - The Kurdish Democratic Party is a people's party. It defends the interests of the working classes, farmers, intellectuals, professionals and merchants.

b - The Kurdish Democratic Party is based on secularity and recognizes the separation of politics from religion.

c - The Kurdish Democratic Party recognizes the principle of evolution and agrees to the amendment of its program and internal rules according to the procedure indicated in its Constitution.

National Charter of the KDP (Iraq)

Enclosure No. 3 to Despatch No. 1434 of September 17, 1946 from American Legation, Baghdad.

Since the outbreak of World War I, the Kurdish people have pressed for the liberty and independence of their country whether by peaceful means through their political representatives at the Paris Conference or the League of Nations, or by armed revolt, as represented by the risings of Derseem, Diarbekr, Sulaimaniya and Barzan.

For the sake of liberty, our brave people have sacrificed the blood of thousands of their sons in full sight of the civilized nations. The world has witnessed that the Kurdish people have covered a long and glorious way, and endured great sacrifices. It witnesses now its life and death struggle towards its sacred. goal: freedom and independence. The Kurdish people had hoped, like other nations, to obtain their rights at the Peace Conference, but no one cared to listen to their demands for liberty for the great victorious countries had given all their attention to using the Congress as a means of sharing between them as war booty and re-dividing the world into spheres of influence. Hence, the First World War was an imperialist war in which the Kurdish voice, like that of other small nations for the realization of their liberty went unheeded. The League of Nations which was created by the Peace Conference to help the small nations, according to its charter, was but an agency of the imperialist countries. Its decision to detach the Mosul Vilayet from the Ottoman State to be placed under Kurdish Administration in accordance with the Treaty of Sevres, was reversed by the Treaty of Lausanne which prevented the Kurds from exercising even their years of peace. Our Kurdish compatriots in Iraq, in particular, well remember those sacrifices and are determined to attain their goal, freedom and independence. They will fight their enemies: foreign imperialism and the Government of Iraq which has violated the provisions of the constitution written with the blood of those who fell in its great revolt. They declare to the world and the nations united against autocratic tyranny, and victorious in the holy war against the black fascist regime, that they will fight the despotic fascist rule in Iraq. The glorious victory of democracy over Hitlerism in the Second World War came as a result of the support given by the freedom loving countries to the Allies. The U.S.S.R. which endured sacrifices more than any other country to defeat fascism was a great new contributory factor. We, the Kurds who are attached to the train of the Peace loving nations, have contributed by our blood and the produce of our land for the victory of democracy. The Kurdish people demand the liberty and the right of self determination, guaranteed by the historic Atlantic and United Nations Charters.

We, the true representatives of the Kurdish people announce to the world that we shall never cease to fight for our democratic liberty, and by his resolution we do not fight the Iranians, Turkish or Arab peoples. The Arab nation is our friend and ally, we shall always seek to develop a free and honorable union with the Arab people in Iraq. It is the right of the Arab people to free itself from the imperialist elements and their agents for the attainment of freedom and independence. We shall fight side by side with it to get rid of imperialism, retrogression and the despotic rulers. The two peoples are most eager to secure their democratic liberties under the aegis of a federal democratic popular state.

Our Arab brethren, we pledge ourselves to continue the struggle for your liberty and ours. Sons of the Arab people, do not aim your weapons at our breasts as we are your loyal allies but point them to your enemies those reactionary and treacherous masters who have stood by the side of the foreign imperialists conspiring against your rights. We shall struggle for a free federal democratic state. Be with us in the national battlefield.

Wherefore, we the Representatives of the Kurdish people, affix our signatures on this historic document of our national Pact and pledge ourselves to its fulfillment.

Declaration of the Congress of the KDP

Enclosure No. 4 to Despatch No. 1434 of September 17, 1946 from the American Legation, Baghdad.

Congress met, attended by representatives of the dissolved Rizgari Party, the dissolved Iraqi Kurdistan Communist Party, the dissolved Z.K. Society, the provisional executive committee of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Iraq which was organized in Kurdistan of Iran and dissolved by a resolution of an overwhelming majority, and national elements reputed for their long struggle for Kurdistan and democracy. Members arrived at the appointed time and place, with the exception of one who for obvious reasons could not attend. After the election of a president, messages received from Iraqi Kurdistan were submitted, as well as letters of credence from important personalities who were unable to attend, which authorized bearers to represent them at the Congress. Congress, after reading these messages and letters, proceeded with the deliberation over the items on the agenda submitted' by the preparatory committee. In order that Congress may successfully carry out its prime task in these critical conditions of secrecy, the president urged the members of Congress to restrict their debates on the following fundamental questions:

When the first issue was brought for discussion before Congress, freedom of thought was given to "Z.K." representative who expressed his confidence in the establishment of the only major party for Great Kurdistan. As the Democratic Party in Mahabad is the one entrusted with the duties of the government of the Kurdish Republic, it would be appropriate for their party to become the leader of the Democratic movement in Greater Kurdistan. It is in the province of the Kurdistan Republic to save other parts of Kurdistan from the hands of foreign imperialism and ruling governments in Greater Kurdistan. Therefore, I propose that the only Democratic Party be that of Mahabad, and that Kurdish Party in Iraq be a branch thereof, enjoying the right of laying down its plans of struggle for independence, in accordance with Iraqi circumstances. On debating his proposal in Congress, the following points were raised:

After a long debate on the issue the proposal was put to vote (the Iraqi Kurdish Democratic Party should be the only Party within Iraqi frontiers, as required by political necessities) and was accepted unanimously, with "Z.K." representative the only dissident. When it was suggested that "Z.K." representative be given an opportunity to study the program of the Iraqi Democratic Party and his enrollment in the party, the proposal was accepted unanimously.

The second question was the debate on the agenda, the internal regulations, and the Charter which were discussed in article by article. Congress then made certain amendments in some of the articles of the first two and added a sentence in the Charter. Vote was made on each of the draft bills which were accepted in their final form.

During the discussion of the third question of the agenda, the members of Congress unanimously decided to concentrate their activities on the Iraqi Democratic Parties. The Central Committee was authorized by the Congress to appoint the Party with which cooperation could be established after a thorough study of the Iraqi Parties' policies. It was also authorized to define the scope of its activities with those parties.

On discussing the scope of cooperation between the Kurdish Democratic Party in Iraq and the Kurdish. Democratic Party in Mahabad, Congress urged the necessity of cooperation. The extent and scope of cooperation are set forth in the minutes of Congress. Congress then elected by ballot the Executive Committee and those who obtained the majority of votes were finally elected. Congress terminated its functions by addressing this appeal.

Appeal of the Congress of the KDP

Enclosure No. 5 to Despatch No. 1434 of September 17, 1946, from American Legation, Baghdad.

Sons of our brave people, experienced Shaikhs, national young men and women, our great history which is characterized by heroism and revolutions through the centuries has proved to the world that we love freedom and independence. The Shemzinan, Diarbekr, Sulaimaniya and Barzan risings are but everlasting witnesses which urge you to go forward until we attain our goal.

The Kurdistan of Iran has unfettered itself and emerged into the world in its democratic existence which it is peacefully building up and has become its own master.

The strength of our Kurdish Democratic Party in Iraq is the only assurance for the establishment of a federal Kurdish Government in Iraq enjoying a democratic regime.

Our Party is drawn from the Kurdish people. It will fight Iraqi reactionaries and agents of imperialism. Forward under its banners until victory over its black camp is won. The Kurdistan of Iraq demands the liberty and independence of the Kurdish people in its own administration. It also demands free union with Arab Iraq.

Manifesto of the Kurdish Democratic Army

SUBJECT: Transmitting Manifesto Addressed to the Secretary of the United Nations by "The Party of the Kurdish Democratic Army"

In continuation of my despatch No. 1434 of September 17, 1946, I have the honor to transmit herewith a translation of a manifesto addressed to the Secretary of the United Nations Organization by The Party of the Kurdish Democratic Army, (not to be confused with the Kurdish Democratic Party) a copy of which was recently received at this Embassy.

It will be noted that the manifesto, which incidentally both in draftsmanship and printing is considerably below the standard of recent pro-Kurdish publications, points out inter alia that Kurds are denied the right to publish periodicals in their own language; are deprived of higher educational establishments; are not allowed to form political parties or cooperative societies; and are deprived of all benefits from the rich revenues obtained by the Iraqi Government from the oil of Kurdistan.

Enclosure to Despatch No. 1570 of January 23, 1947, from American Embassy, Baghdad.

The freedom loving countries have contributed unprecedented sacrifices to the defeat of the hostile dictatorships, the eradication of the spirit of domination of one state over another, and the establishment of peace and stability in the world. As a result of the second World War, all the nations agreed to one principle, that is universal peace, forbidding war and granting each nation the right of self determination. In the light of such principles, the UNO was established to advocate without discrimination, justice, prosperity, and peace among humanity, that peace which imperialists attempt to disturb on the basis that war is a profitable trade. Certain people trusted the sanctity of these principles, while others ignored them and persisted in their hostile activities, looting and enslaving others. As an example to the authenticity of our claims, we have the honor to give below a brief resume of the desperate Kurdish State, which did not meet with any support or sympathy from the civilized world because of the latter's imperialist designs:

Prior to World War I and up to this present day, the Kurdish people attempted by all lofty human means to voice their aspirations to the civilized world, enlist its sympathy and moral support, and emancipate this nation from the yoke of the reactionary dictatorships in Turkey, Iran and Iraq, but unfortunately without success on account of the might of such imperialists. The imperialists are still persisting in their cruel plan, in view of their control over all land, sea and air communications. In this case, will the imperialists listen to complaints of a State for which they are responsible? Every defense staged by the Kurdish people is met by harmful propaganda on the part of the imperialists who impair its reputation and presents the claims to the world as coming from a savage race which does not deserve to live. As we were proceeding along the peaceful road, persecutions and tyranny were being committed. If we were compelled in such trying circumstances, to take arms against the aggressor in defense of our rights and national traditions, the imperialists would have taken this opportunity to declare such acts as criminal and savage. Throughout this period, the Kurdish people suffered unlimited pains and agonies with patience and firm determination.

The Kurdish people believe in justice of the UNO and in that of its high principles, as well as in the justice of the Kurdish cause. But the confidence of the Kurdish people in themselves alone will not help to maintain peace if not equally met by the enemies of the Kurds, such as the Governments of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. These governments are like dummies in the hands of the imperialists and are mobilized or demobilized subject to the exigency of the imperialist aims. The behaviour of those governments towards these people is similar to that exercised by the dictators towards the Jews and even surpass it in ferocity.

In the light of these experiments and black pages in the annals of the Kurds, and in view of tortures inflicted both in the past and in the present before the eyes of the world and of UNO, our party has been organized in the name of "Party of the Kurdish Democratic Army". It is not a terrorist party like that of the defeated dictatorships. Its objective is to preach brotherhood, justice and universal peace as advocated by the United Nations and the Democracies; to side with the freedom loving nations who advocate equality of rights and oppose every imperialist policy; and to defend the legitimate rights and the natural freedoms of this unfortunate people against the aggressors and robbers of the 20th Century atomic age so that the Kurdish people may live with clear conscience, confident of their lives and property.

While the United Nations enunciates its high humanitarian principles and discusses disarmament, the Kurdish people are living in an atmosphere of terror, massacre, apprehension, famine, poverty, fear and wholesale suspension from work, simply because they ask for bread. and the democratic freedoms. The Kurds are also denied the following rights:

1. The Kurds do not enjoy the right of publishing newspapers, magazines and various publications in their language.

3. Not a fils is spent for the development of the state of the Kurds from the oil royalties received from Iraq and Iranian Kurdistan. The annual income from oil royalties accrued to the Government of Iraq exceeds I.D. 10,000,000, most of which is allocated for the purchase of war equipment to kill the Kurds and destroy their homes, while the rest goes to the pockets of agents of imperialism, their faithful followers who assume power in alternative terms.

4. The Kurdish people do not enjoy the right of forming parties and cooperative societies. If a Kurd should dare to mention such things he would jeopardize his life.

For example, last year a group of Kurds residing in Iraq submitted an application to the Ministry of Interior requesting the necessary license for the formation of a society in the name of "The Kurdish Charitable Society", in order to raise contributions for the construction of a free school for poor Kurds. The application was rejected. After several attempts were made the party concerned was informed by a junior clerk at the Ministry that the reason for disregarding the application was due to the title of the Society and therefore the society was compelled to change it into "National Failiya Society", the word "Kurdish" being eliminated, license was obtained.

5. Kurds are not employed in the Kurdish districts and those employed ignore the Kurdish language.

6. Kurds are not allowed to demonstrate their patriotism nor speak their language in government offices.

7. Kurds are not employed in the various ministries of the governments dealing with the Kurdish people, and those employed are synthetic Kurds and do not truly represent the Kurdish people.

8. The Kurds are not well represented in Parliaments, and are appointed and not elected to such posts. Such appointments are made by secret bidding in which tribal Shaikhs win. The Shaikhs even ignore elementary reading and writing and affix their thumb impressions on payrolls. During a debate, the Kurdish deputies fall asleep, but when voting on a bill they suddenly wake up, raise their hands to approve the bill without even knowing its name or title.

9. Widespread diseases in the Kurdish districts with no adequate health institutions to take care of the sick.

10. The Turks publicly and unshamefully declare that there is no "Kurdish Cause" in Turkey. Sometimes they call us "Turkish Mountaineers" and sometimes "Tent Living Nomads". By this ruse they aim at hiding, in their belief, the 5 million Kurds from the eyes of the world, but we believe the world knows much more than the Turks the history of the Kurdish State which will one day regain its liberty and rights, and reveal to the world the tyranny of the oppressive Turks, the children of those who committed mass massacres on the peaceful Armenians. They declare that the Kurds have been amalgamated with the Turkish race while on the other hand they contradict such statements and say that unlike the Armenians and Greeks, the Kurd is a Moslem and does not stab from the back his Turkish brother who is also a Moslem. Imagine Your Excellency, that though the Turks exterminated in wholesale the Kurdish leaders and intelligentsia, they still fear the vital Kurdish cause and the shadow of the "new Kurdistan."

If a tourist were to travel in Turkish Kurdistan, he would find no men but women only who plough the land solely to obtain a small quantity of bad barley to feed their fatherless children. The tourist will be surprised and ask where the men of this district have disappeared. Are these districts inhabited by women only or that men were not born there? The children are very weak, naked, and dirty, representing a country full of poverty and misery. The answer to all these questions is that the Turkish Government has mobilized all men and sent them to places far away from their families where they are made impotent by the officers, and are not released from the army until reaching old age. On returning home, their sons would not recognize them, nor do they recognize their sons or their wives. They have become unable to render any service because of their continued presence in the armed forces.

If we protest against an inhuman act, the simplest punishment would be hanging or tormenting of the worst type. In submitting this manifesto through the said Embassies, it means we are prepared to expect any harm that might fall upon us.

Your esteemed office has probably learned of our protest dated October` 6, 1946, sent through the British, Soviet, American and Chinese missions in Baghdad, in which we informed you of the sufferings of the Kurdish people and the obstacles barring the hearing of our voice by the civilized world. Shortly after the protest was submitted, the situation grew worse in Kurdistan until it resembled the Nuremberg Tribunal where people who wrought havoc to humanity were hanged. It appears you have forgotten that the Kurdish people have fought side by side with the Allies and participated in the war effort against the Axis. The situation runs as follows:

The world has learned of the conspiracy of Fascist Iranian government conjointly with the Iraqi Government as usual, and supported by foreign pressure against the Kurdish people. The Iranian government, through the aid of foreign air force, attacked the democratic Kurdistan Republic in Iran and the various peaceful Kurdish districts under the pretext of maintaining peace and carrying out elections. Ferocious battles took place between the attacking Iranian Army and the army of Kurdistan Republic fighting for its life at the time your organization was debating the question of establishing a free and happy world. When you were proposing world disarmament, the Iraqi Government which the late Wendell Willkie pointed out in "One World" "hates the people and is hated by the people" was proceeding to execute armed conspiracy by officially sending agent Abdul Baki Nuri, Qaimmaqam of Rania Qadha, to meet at the village of Liwatan inside the Iranian territory, the Kurdish tribal chiefs to incite them in the name of the Iraqi Government to seize the headquarters of that Republic in Mahabad. He supplied them with money and arms, and he armed the tribal chiefs of Horaman in the Kurdish vilayet of Sena or Saddaooj in Iran. The Iraqi Government was not satisfied with all these movements and activities of its spy against the people of his race, however, it concentrated all its military police and air forces in the Kurdish districts adjacent to the Republic of Iranian Kurdistan a month before Qavam As--Sultaneh announced the alleged free elections under the guise of "military maneuvers" in Iraq and "Protection of free elections" in Iran. But everybody knows, even the children, that the Iraqi Government's main objective was to:

1. Terrify the Kurdish people so that they would not assist their brethren in the Democratic Kurdistan Republic in Iran, and to exterminate the democratic movement in Kurdistan.

2. Disguise its soldiers and police in Kurdish costumes, and send them into that Republic to stab its people from the back and carry out sabotage.

3. Press the tribal chiefs living near the boundary of that Republic in fighting their Kurdish brethren in Iran.

4. Despatch the Iraqi air force to Iran under the guise of "combating locusts" with intent to "combat Kurds".

5. Dissolve the Kurdish Democratic Republic in Iran to allow foreign intrigues regardless of the untoward consequences it would provoke.

6. Enforce traditional policies of these governments to amalgamate the Kurdish people in accordance with Nazi philosophy.

It is well established that the decision of the Iranian Government to send its troops to Kurdistan was not to maintain security and to carry out elections, but, to deprive the Kurds of the right to enjoy their democratic liberties, to dissolve the Republic and the Kurdish Democratic Party, and to deny the. election of Kurdish representatives to the new Iranian Parliament. In point of fact, such action by the Iranian Government, and the re-instatement of the reactionary regime in Kurdistan is welcome not only by the Iranian reactionaries but also by certain foreign circles.

The Iranian Government's decision to despatch its forces to Kurdistan, dissolve the Democratic Republic and destroy the social and human reforms carried out by this Republic during a short period which the Iranian Government had not been able to accomplish for centuries, has created great indignation and sorrow in all Kurdish towns in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria because the objective was not to maintain peace or protect election but to do away with the freedom of the Kurdish people. Thus the Iranian Government proceeded along a hazardous path, a patch which was inspired by foreigners in which the UP correspondent clearly stated that "Qavam As-Sulteneh carried out his attack with the aid of foreigners".

Your Excellency: We are confident of your justice and that of your organization in laying out a fair solution to the Kurdish question and to the pains and misrepresentations of the Kurdish people who are not tied up by any relation to those governments, especially that we do not realize what they want from us. You will agree with us that these governments belittle us because they believe that our appeal to your organization would give us no benefit, as well as the fact we are unarmed.

Excellency: The Kurdish people can emancipate itself from the yoke of these governments and regain its democratic liberties if foreigners will cease their conspiracies under such pretexts as the "Saadabad Pact" and the "Eastern Bloc". All of these intrigues are aimed at the Kurdish people, but we shall persist in our fight with our hearts full of confidence in the justice of the UNO, and the sympathy of humanity against the aggressors. Therefore, we request you kindly to consider the following demands:

1. Instruct the Iranian Government to stop fighting and its air raids over the Kurdish Iranian District; to compel it to withdraw its armies; and to release the Kurdish liberal internees.

2. Instruct the Iraqi Government to withdraw its armed forces from the Kurdish Districts which are adjacent to Iranian Kurdistan; compel it to abandon its intrigues and the dissemination of the spirit of discrimination among the Iranian and the Iraqi Kurds; and to avoid shedding blood under the guise of "Army Maneuvers".

3. Send a committee to investigate the number and nature of the Iranian, Turkish and Iraqi forces who fought in common, the armed aggression against the Kurdish Democratic Republic in Iran at the time when members of those governments were at the Council of UNO, discussing the prohibition of war. How did these dare to attack the Kurdish Republic and be the first countries to violate the principles of UNO?

4. Delegate a UNO commission which should be selected from persons who would not respond to imperialist influence, and make sure that the Kurds may meet freely with the members of this committee. Such committee should not repeat the acts committed by the Plebiscite Committee of the abolished League of Nations, since that Committee based its conclusions on the evidence given by the agents of these governments. Not a Kurd was present before the Plebiscite Committee but only officials and police who were disguised in Kurdish national costumes.

The consideration of the long standing Kurdish question will strengthen the principles of the UNO and will finally stop international robbery in this atomic age. It will prove to the world that UNO will fulfill its pledges to those who gave their lives on the battlefields of honor for the sake of democratic freedom, justice and world peace. It will likewise prove to the world that the confidence of the weak nations in UNO is justified, and that it will compel the greater nations to respect the principles of justice and humanity which were unanimously approved by the peoples of the world to maintain peace, and to refrain from interference in internal affairs of other nations.

On behalf of the Kurdish people, I present the highest consideration and respects, and allegiance to the principles of UNO.

C-in-C, Party of the Kurdish Democratic Army and President of the Party's Central Committee

Protest of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan

Subject: Transmitting Translation of Protest by Central Committee of Democratic Party of Kurdistan in Iraq.

In continuation of the Embassy's despatch no. 1570 of January 23, 1947, I have the honor to transmit herewith a translation of a protest sent by the Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan in Iraq to the "Chiefs of Missions of the Great Nations in Baghdad." Judging from the relatively expert manner in which this petition was prepared and its generally Communistic tone, it would appear that the Democratic Party of Kurdistan in Iraq is probably the same as the Kurdish Democratic Party (see my despatch no. 1434 of September 17, 1946).

It will be noted that the enclosed protest laments the fact that the United Nations have done nothing to prevent or discourage "crimes and atrocities" perpetrated against the Kurds by the "dictatorial governments of Turkey, Iraq and Iran;" that the "imperialistic" powers in the Near East and the Middle East, determined to blot out the rays of hope released by the temporary success of the peoples government in Azerbaijan, sent the well-armed troops of "treacherous" Gavam As-Sultaneh to "murder" thousands of innocent Kurds in Azerbaijan, destroy peaceful villages, and to devastate Azerbaijan in the name of freedom.

In conclusion the Democratic Party of Kurdistan appeals to world opinion to end the "terroristic activities of imperialistic regimes" and to bring about a solution of the Kurdish problem in conformity with the principles of the United Nations, so that peace may reign in the greater part of the Middle East.

The Democratic Party of Kurdistan avails itself of this opportunity to express its highest respects.

Your Excellency is aware that the Kurdish people are one of those who, for thousands of years, have been residing in an area in the Middle Eastern countries known as Kurdistan. This noble people has rendered immense services to world civilization and has participated to a great extent in the human advancement.

This nation enjoyed freedom and independence for several centuries until recent generations when its land was occupied by foreigners. Kurdistan was divided among foreign powers and its political entity vanished. But the spirit of independence and love of freedom were still so strong that the Kurdish people resisted their aggressors unceasingly, and revolted time and again in an attempt to regain their usurped rights. We need not mention the persecutions and tortures suffered by the Kurds throughout these ages.

The Kurdish people, like other persecuted races, laid great hopes on the principles of the Atlantic Charter, Yalta, Tehran, and Potsdam Declarations, as well as on the statements made by the United Nations leaders concerning the granting of freedom and independence, and the extermination of all kinds of persecution.

We had hoped that the Peace Conference and the UNO would be fairer in dealing with the Kurdish question than the unjust treaty of Lausanne and the decisions of the League of Nations, and no sooner was the second world war ended and the victory of democratic principles announced, our hopes were dissipated and unprecedented acts of terror overwhelmed Kurdistan - a terror which was not suffered even by Jews, Czechs, or any other European nation at the climax of the Hitler Regime.

In that part of Kurdistan which is under the influence of the Kemalist fascists, a steel partition separated that part of Turkey from the rest of the civilized world. The Turkish authorities have on numerous occasions prevented correspondents of foreign newspapers from visiting the Eastern vilayets in Turkish Kurdistan and thus obtaining first hand information on the atrocities which were being committed in that region. Determined to crush Kurdish nationalism, the Turkish Government resorted to mass persecutions and exterminations and forbade the Kurds to speak their own language in their homes.

In Iraq, Kurdish free-born people have suffered more than the Arabs from the persecutions of the imperialists and their followers. The Iraqi Government mobilized an army supported by British planes and heavy guns which killed the innocent Kurds in Barzan, burnt their villages and dispersed thousands of naked and hungry villages with their families to the mountains in the cold of winter.

The persecutions carried out by the gendarmarie of the fascist Iranians on the inhabitants of HORAMAN and MERYOWAN in Iranian Kurdistan were evidence of the extreme sufferings of the people.

All these crimes and atrocities were committed by the reactionary dictatorial governments of Ankara, Baghdad and Tehran upon the Kurdish people at the outset of victory of the principles of justice, right and liberty, with the UNO making no move to prevent such activities despite the repeated protests submitted by the Kurdish political circles.

The Kurds still foresee rays of hope in the horizon. The districts of Azerbaijan, North and Western Kurdistan remained from August 1941 to mid December 1946 as far away from reactionary Iranian Government's atrocities in view of the collaboration of the Kurdish and Azerbaijan peoples in combating to the last drop of blood their common enemy, in defense of their liberty and the democratic freedoms.

No sooner had the world imperialists realized the extent of success of this popular democratic movement, and its danger on the interests of the present imperialists regime in the Near and Middle East, than they decided to exterminate such movement at all costs. They entrusted the Central Iranian Government with the task of executing this scheme.

The treacherous government of Qavam As-Sultaneh used the election as a pretext to send its gendarmarie to that district for insuring freedom of election in defiance of its previous commitments to the democratic Azerbaijan and Kurdish authorities to prevent the gendarmarie from raiding again the sacred land. The forces of Qavam As-Sultaneh, supported by modern tanks and airplanes, attacked the Azerbaijan and Kurdish forces in order to maintain the so-called peace and security in that district, but no sooner had the Iranian forces set foot on the land than peace and tranquility disappeared. Peaceful villages were burnt, cities were bombed, and thousands of innocent Kurds who were fleeing from the peaceful paradise were mowed down by machine gun fire. The gendarmarie most cruelly, immorally and unconscientiously resorted to killing, torturing and looting in this vast district under the guise of peace and order which Qavam As-Sultaneh accomplished at the hands of his gang. Thousands of people fled to the mountains suffering from starvation and dying from cold weather, preferring to live under such conditions rather than return to their ruined villages and cities where the gang of Qavam As-Sultaneh committed all kinds of atrocities.

Excellency, in this vast district during the victory of democratic principles, Kurdish free-born nationals were arrested and executed without judgment or interrogation. The Democratic Party of Kurdistan in face of all such criminal acts raises its voice in strong protest to the United Nations, world public opinion and free press, enlisting their aid in bringing to an end those terrorist activities. Our Party likewise condemns the negative or hostile policy adopted by the imperialist nations towards the Kurdish problem - a problem which should be dealt with in conformity with the principles of United Nations and the democratic regime, so that peace may reign in the greater part of the Middle East.

Kindly submit our protest to the esteemed American Government, and accept our highest respects.

N.B. Copies of this protest were sent to Chiefs of Missions of the Great Nations in Baghdad.

In Turkey	3,800,000 Kurds
In Iran	3,000,000 “
In Iraq	1,000,000 “
In Syria	250,000 “
In Russia	160,000 “
TOTAL IN KURDISTAN	8,210,000 Kurds

Assyrians	35,000
Syrians	10,000
Chaldeans	5,000
Jews	3,200
Armenians	2,500
Circassians	1,800
Greeks	1,500
TOTAL	59,000

Name	Profession	Place of Residence	Administrative Unit
1. Shaikh Karim	Landowner	Halabcha	Sulaimaniya	Liwa
2. Shaikh R.ashid Shaikh Muhammad	“	“	“	“
3. Anwar Jamil Beg Jaf	" & Lawyer	“	“	"
4. Mahmud Beg Husain Beg	“	"	"	"
5. Muhammad Husain Beg Zada	"	"	"	"
6. Ahmad Salih Jaf	Chief of Jaf Tribe	"	"	"
7. Burhan Hamid Jaf	Lawyer & a chief of Jaf Tribe	"	"	"
8. Muhammad Karim	Religious Head	"	"	"
9. Muhammad Sa'id Beg Zada Jaf	A chief of Jaf Tribe	"	"	"
10. Muhammad Qadir	Chief of Galali Tribe	"	"	"
11. Muhammad Ali Ibn Husain Beg	A Chief of Jaf Tribe	"	"	"
12. Muhammad Mustafa Beg	A Chief of Baran-kiya Tribe	"	"	"
13. Shaikh Mahmud Kaka Shaikh	Religious Head	"	"	"
14. Shaikh Khalid Shaikh Jamil	“	"	"	"
15. Baba Rasul	"	"	"	"
16. Muhammad Al-Mufti	"	"	"	"
17. Muhammad Hasan	Chief of Tark-hani Tribe	Halabcha	Sulaimaniya	"
18. Muhammad Salih	Chief of Rog-hazai Tribe	"	"	"
19. Baba Ali ibn Shaikh Mahmud Hafid Zada	Chief of Bar-zanja Tribe	Sulaimaniya	"	"
20. Muhammad ibn Abdul Rahman Agha	Notable of Sulaimaniya	"	"	"
21. Shaikh Cadir Shaikh Sa'id	Chief of Bar-zanja Tribe	"	"	"
22. Mami Ridha ibn Haj Mustafa	Chief of Haqqa Group	"	"	"
23. Ibrahim Hafid zada	A Chief of Bar-zanja Tribe	"	"	"
24. Ibrahim Ahmad	Lawyer	"	"	"
25. Ismail Haqqi Shawis	Notable of Sulaimaniya	"	"	"
26. Abdul Rahman Haj Mulla Sa'id	Notable of Sulaimaniya	"	"	"
27. Fa'iq Hoshiyar	Lawyer	"	"	"
28. Sa'id Afrasiab	Chief of Horami Tribe & Lawyer	"	"	"