It will be observed that the British Government and the Government of
Iraq agree to all of the amendments which the Department wished to make
in the proposed Convention between the United Kingdom, the United States
and Iraq, with one exception; namely, the proposed alteration in the
wording of Article 4, dealing with the position of educational,
philanthropic and religious institutions.
I have the honor to request the Department’s instructions in regard to
this matter.
[Enclosure]
Mr. H. J.
Seymour of the British Foreign Office to the
American Chargé (Atherton)
[London,] 5 September,
1928.
No. E 4301/84/65My Dear Atherton: In your letter of January
4th last to Oliphant regarding the proposed Convention between the
United Kingdom, the United States and Iraq you set forth certain
amendments which your
[Page 954]
Government wished to make in the so-called “revise of November 1st,”
and which they hoped would prove acceptable to His Majesty’s
Government and the Government of Iraq. These amendments have in the
interval been fully discussed both here and in Baghdad, and I am now
in a position to let you know that they are all acceptable with one
exception, namely the proposed alteration in the wording of Article
4, dealing with the position of educational, philanthropic and
religious institutions.
The suggestion of your Government in this regard was that the words
“and to any general educational requirements prescribed by law in
Iraq” should be omitted, and that the Iraqi Government should accept
in lieu thereof the statement of your Government’s willingness to
raise no objection to any reasonable curricular requirements which
may be made by law generally applicable to all educational
institutions in Iraq. The Government of Iraq point out, however,
that Article 16 of the Iraq Constitution provides that the various
communities in Iraq shall have the right to establish and maintain
schools for the instruction of their own members in their own
languages, provided that such instruction is carried out in
conformity with such general programmes as may be prescribed by Law.
It was in order that the proposed Convention might conform to the
provisions of the Iraq Constitution (which cannot be amended before
1930) that the words “and to any general educational requirements
prescribed by law in Iraq” were embodied in Article 4. The Iraq
Government are advised that, in the circumstances, they could not,
without infringing their own Constitution, accord to the United
States Government the right to establish and maintain schools in
Iraq without conditioning that right by some such proviso as that
included in Article 16 of the Constitution.
Apart from this, however, the Iraq Government feel that if they
agreed to the proposal made by the United States Government, they
would, by implication, be bound to permit that Government to decide
whether the educational law in Iraq is reasonable or not, and, in
the event of their considering any Article unreasonable, to declare
that they held American institutions in Iraq exempt from its
application. The terms of Article 16 of the Constitution would,
however, preclude the Iraq Government from recognising any such
declaration, and a state of affairs would thus arise which they feel
would be likely to cause friction and difficulty. They have,
therefore, carefully considered the matter with the object of
finding some alternative solution which would not be open to the
same constitutional objection, but which would, nevertheless,
provide a satisfactory safeguard for the American establishments in
question.
For this purpose the Iraqi Government, who are anxious to do their
utmost to meet American wishes, are prepared to give the United
States Government assurances to the following effect:—
[Page 955]
- (1)
- The Iraqi Government will not interfere with the liberty
of missionary schools to teach religion to Christian
children, or to any other student whose guardian agrees to
his attending religious ceremonies;
- (2)
- The Iraqi Government will not interfere in matters
concerning the curriculum, such as the time-table,
discipline and purely internal administration in missionary
schools.
They trust that these assurances will suffice to meet the
considerations advanced in your letter of the 4th January and that,
in view of the safeguards thus provided, the United States
Government will be prepared to withdraw their objections to the
retention in Article 4 of the words “and to any general educational
requirements prescribed by law in Iraq”.
I hope that the United States Government will regard this solution as
satisfactory and that it will now be possible to sign the Convention
as proposed in the revise, subject to the other alterations
suggested by you in your letter of January 4th.
Believe me [etc.]
