Annex 1 | Iraq – 1583 to 1960

could not abandon Iraq: “Having beaten the Turk ... we could not at the Armistice have

repudiated all our undertakings towards the Arabs. We were responsible for liberating

them from Turkish sovereignty, and we were absolutely bound to assist them in setting

up Arab governments, if we were not prepared to govern them ourselves.” Lloyd George

added: “If we leave, we may find a year or two after we have departed that we have

handed over to the French and Americans some of the richest oilfields in the world.”

33. Treaty negotiations with Feisal were concluded; under the treaty, Britain would

have “executive authority” for twenty years over Iraq’s foreign and security policy, in a

“co‑equal” Kingdom of Iraq. The Iraqi Cabinet ratified the treaty on 10 October 1922.

Two weeks later, Lloyd George’s coalition government disintegrated, and a General

Election was called. During the election campaign, several candidates urged Britain to

leave Iraq immediately.

34. So strong was antagonism in Britain to remaining in Iraq that, when the

Conservative leader, Andrew Bonar Law, became Prime Minister in October 1922,

he set up a Cabinet Committee to reconsider whether Britain should continue with the

Anglo‑Iraq Treaty. The Committee decided that the twenty-year duration of the treaty

should be reduced to four years.

35. In Iraq, Sir Percy Cox threatened to dissolve the Constituent Assembly if it did not

ratify the treaty, and issued orders for British troops to occupy the Assembly building.

The treaty was ratified, whereupon the British encouraged the creation of an Iraqi civilian

administration under Feisal’s rule. One obstacle was a fatwa issued in 1922 by the

Iraqi Shia religious leaders in Najaf, forbidding observant Shia from supporting Feisal,

or any members of the Sunni royal house of the Hedjaz. Feisal was, in the language

of the fatwa, “an alien usurper to the throne of Iraq, imposed by the colonial power”.

A few leading Shia families defied the fatwa (which remained in force until 1937) and

supported the new dynasty and government.

36. For non-Kurdish Iraqis, the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty offered a means of curbing Kurdish

separatism. In 1923 and 1924, British fighting against Kurdish separatists involved

punitive military operations and RAF bombing raids. The RAF also took part in bombing

raids to persuade recalcitrant tribes throughout Iraq to pay their taxes. One method by

which Britain sought to maintain law and order in Iraq was by the setting up of “Arab

Levies” – troops recruited from minority Iraqi communities: Kurds, Marsh Arabs and the

Assyrian Christians.

37. In 1924, Air Commodore Lionel Charlton, the Chief Staff Officer of RAF Iraq

Command, visited the hospital in Diwaniya where he saw horribly injured civilians,

including women and children, who were among the Shia victims of a British air raid.

In protest at Britain’s bombing policy, he resigned.

38. Among Iraqis, the legacy of these punitive bombing raids was long-lasting.

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