Office of the Historian

890G.42/44

The Minister Resident in Iraq (Knabenshue) to the Secretary of State

No. 1459
Baghdad, January 3, 1940.
[Received February 16.]

Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s instruction No. 404 of November 21, 1939,18 with which was enclosed for the Legation’s information, a copy of a memorandum of conversation between Father Edmund J. Walsh, Vice President of Georgetown University and representatives of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs regarding the proposed educational law in Iraq.

Subsequent to the date of the Department’s instruction under acknowledgment, the Department will have received my despatch No. 1427 of November 2, 1939,19 with which I enclosed a copy of my note to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, drafted in accordance with the suggestions contained in the Department’s instruction No. 389 of September 14, 1939.20 In this despatch, I informed the Department of the cooperation which I had secured from the British Ambassador. The Ambassador stated that, having referred my suggestions to his Government, he had been authorized to give full support to this Legation’s representations in the matter. After our conversation, I received from the Ambassador a note, a copy of which is enclosed, outlining to me his conversation with the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

I feel confident that, in view of the tenor of my note to the Ministry of October 16, 1939,21 and of the British Ambassador’s conversation with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the proposed educational law will undoubtedly be shelved for the moment, and that if and when later presented to Parliament, it will be so amended as to eliminate its more objectionable features. However, I will keep in touch with the situation, and should a new law be proposed I will hope to be given an opportunity of discussing it again with the Minister for [Page 728] Foreign Affairs and report the matter to the Department before the law is presented to Parliament.

Respectfully yours,

P. Knabenshue
[Enclosure]

The British Ambassador in Iraq (Newton) to the American Minister Resident in Iraq (Knabenshue)

Baghdad, 14 November, 1939.

My Dear Minister: I spoke to Ali Jaudat22 on November 9th about the draft educational law. He explained that they appreciated the good work done by the American schools and did not wish to harm them. But the Persians had closed several Iraqi schools in Persia and they wanted to retaliate on Persian schools in Iraq.

I pointed out that it would be a mistake to enact a foolish law merely because the Persians had set a bad example and the upshot of our talk was that Ali Jaudat made a note to talk the matter over with the Minister of Education with a view to finding some means to hit back at the Persians without damaging other foreign educational institutions.

With a two months’ adjournment before them they should have time to think things over before Parliament meets again.

Yours very sincerely,

Basil Newton
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Foreign Relations, 1939, vol. iv, p. 551.↩
  3. Ibid., p. 550.↩
  4. Ibid., p. 552.↩
  5. Iraqi Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩