The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
of a
century earlier. Such British influence as remained waned rapidly.
In May 1948 the
British
Military Mission was withdrawn.
65.
In April 1954,
Lord Salter, a senior British civil servant – and former head of
the
economic
and financial section of the League of Nations Secretariat – was
asked by the
Iraq
Development Board to advise on the economic advancement of Iraq.
His report,
focusing on
forward planning, covered water use, agriculture, communications
(road,
rail, river
and air), industry, housing, health, education and
administration.
66.
Lord Salter’s
report was published in 1955 by the Iraq Development
Board,
and
detailed what Salter described as Iraq’s “exceptional opportunity
of achieving
a
development which within a few years would substantially increase
her economic
resources
and raise her general standard of living”.12
67.
This was to be
the last British contribution to the economy of Iraq for
many
years. But
1955 was to see another British-Iraqi joint venture, as fear of the
spread
of
Communism in the Middle East brought Britain and Iraq together
again, with the
establishment
of the Middle East Treaty Organisation (METO), consisting of
Turkey, Iraq,
Iran,
Pakistan and Britain, later known as the Central Treaty
Organisation (CENTO).
68.
In 1955, with
Iraq a member of CENTO and in close relations with Britain’s
armed
forces, RAF
Shaibah and RAF Habbaniya were handed over to the Iraqi Air Force.
As
part of
thie air base agreement, the RAF continued to administer the RAF
hospital at
Habbaniya,
and agreed to provide medical and surgical in-patient treatment for
up to
twenty
officers of the Iraqi forces stationed there. In exchange, Iraq
also granted free
storage to
British personnel using the port at Basra.13
69.
In 1956, with
Egypt threatening to nationalise the Suez Canal, Nuri Said was
invited
to London
by the Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, and asked what Iraq wanted for
its
friendship.
He told Eden that Iraq wanted at least one fighter squadron
equipped with
the latest
type of aircraft. Eden agreed. Nuri Said added that Iraq wanted all
thirty-six
Centurion
tanks promised by Britain and a further forty promised by the
United States.
Eden said
“he felt sure that the tanks could be found from one source or
another”.
Nuri Said
then said Iraq was interested in the application of atomic energy
to peaceful
purposes.
Eden offered him a nuclear reactor.14
12
Lord
Salter, The
Development of Iraq: A Plan of Action. Iraq
Development Board, 1955.
13
Middle East
Defence Secretariat, ‘Implementation of the Anglo-Iraqi Agreement’,
15 June 1956: Foreign
Office
papers, FO 371/121671.
14
‘Top
Secret’, 25 July 1956: Foreign Office papers, FO 371/121662. The
pool-type nuclear reactor, also
called a
‘swimming pool reactor’, had a core immersed in an open pool of
water. It was never delivered.
232