890G.01/331

The British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Simon) to the American Chargé in Great Britain (Atherton) 29

No. E 4804/9/93

Sir: I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your note No. 251 of September 20, in which you enquired whether it was the intention of His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom to lay before the appropriate body of the League of Nations the recent exchange of correspondence regarding the right of the United States Government to be consulted with respect to the conditions under which Iraq is to be administered upon the termination of the mandatory régime.

2.
I presume that the correspondence to which you refer in your note is the following: Mr. Cox’s letter of March 1st to Mr. Baxter, Mr. Rendel’s reply (No. E 1431/9/93 of April 1st) to that letter, the memorandum left at the Foreign Office by Mr. Thaw on July 8th,30 my note to you No. E 3644/408/93 of July 22nd, and your reply of August 26th31 to that note.
3.
The position, as His Majesty’s Government understands it from the memorandum communicated by Mr. Thaw on July 8th is that the United States Government do not wish to raise any difficulties in the particular case of Iraq, but are none the less concerned to preserve the right, which in their opinion they possess, to be consulted with regard to the termination of mandates in general and the conditions upon which they shall be terminated.
4.
It had not originally been the intention of His Majesty’s Government to communicate the correspondence in question to the League of Nations, but they readily agree to do so, in view of the fact that the United States Government have expressed a desire that that correspondence should be brought to the notice of the League. In the opinion of His Majesty’s Government, the appropriate organ of the League is the Permanent Mandates Commission, and on the receipt of confirmation by you that the correspondence which the United States Government have in mind is that enumerated in paragraph 2 of this note, I shall be pleased to take the necessary steps to ensure that copies of the correspondence in question are communicated to the Permanent Mandates Commission, in order that the [Page 685] claim of the United States Government to be consulted on certain questions relating to the termination of mandates may be on record with the appropriate body of the League.32

I have [etc.]

(For the Secretary of State:)
G. W. Rendel
  1. Copy transmitted to the Department by the Chargé in his despatch No. 385, September 27; received October 5.
  2. See footnote 11, p. 678.
  3. Not printed.
  4. By agreement between the American and British Governments, the first three documents listed in paragraph 2 were transmitted by the British Government on October 11, 1932, to the Secretary General of the League of Nations, with a request that they be communicated to the Permanent Mandates Commission. These documents were published by the Department of State in Press Releases, November 5, 1932, pp. 300–305.