890G.42/49
The Minister Resident in Iraq ( Knabenshue ) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 17.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to previous despatches regarding the proposed new Iraqi Education Law and particularly to my despatch No. 1542 of April 12, 1940, reporting that the draft law had been withdrawn for the moment from the Iraqi Parliament for further consideration by the Ministry of Education, and that in a note from the Foreign Office I was assured that the appropriate Iraqi authorities were studying the matter and that the result thereof would be communicated to me in the near future.
While I remarked that the Iraqi Government now seemed disposed to meet our recent representations in a favorable way, I added that it was not impossible that we may be obliged to cope with further difficulties in the future. My fears in this respect have now been realized.
On Sunday, April 14, I called to see the Minister for Foreign Affairs before proceeding the next day on a tour of northern Iraq. He told me that the new Education Law had been passed by the Chamber of Deputies, but that it would not be sent to the Senate during the present session, but would be held over until the next session in the autumn and that in the meantime discussions could take place with a view to arriving at a solution of the problem which would satisfy the foreign [Page 732] school interests concerned. I pointed out to the Foreign Minister that the law as drafted was still considered to contain provisions which limited the freedom of action of foreign schools contrary to the terms of Iraq’s Declaration to the League of Nations. I repeated my former statements to the effect that the passage of this law as drafted would seem to constitute unilateral action on the part of the Iraqi Government in respect to its international obligation, to which my Government is opposed. The Foreign Minister assured me that it was not the desire of the Iraqi Government to do anything which would constitute a nonfulfillment of its international obligation, and that he felt sure that during the interim period between now and the next session of Parliament a satisfactory solution could be found.
In view of the above circumstances, I was greatly surprised to receive an urgent request for me to visit him on May 6th and to learn from him that the Senate had actually passed the Education Law on the eve of its adjournment. He was full of profuse apologies and explained that he was not present at the session of the Senate when this took place and that had he been there he would have caused this law to have been held over until the next session. I thereupon made the suggestion that, in view of the circumstances, he might consider it desirable to cause the signature of the Regent to the law to be postponed pending further discussions. With this object in view, he at once telephoned to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister informed him that if the Regent had not already signed the law he would ask him to postpone signature and that, if he had signed it, he (the Prime Minister) would postpone its publication in the official journal. According to Iraqi Law, even if a bill is passed by Parliament and signed by the Regent, it does not become a law until published in the Government Gazette.
I again pointed out to the Foreign Minister that the proposed law would seem to be a contravention of their Declaration to the League of Nations and as such constitute unilateral action on the part of the Iraqi Government in respect to their international obligation. He replied that he had been assured by his advisers that the law as drafted was not in fact inconsistent with their declaration to the League, and he felt sure that an agreement could be reached whereby the law could be administered in such a way as to give satisfaction to the foreign school interests. I pointed out that while it was possible (hat the present Government might be disposed to administer the law in a lenient and favorable manner in respect to foreign schools, there could be no assurance that succeeding governments would do likewise.
As a result of our further discussion of the matter, it was arranged that the Foreign Minister would furnish me with a copy of the proposed [Page 733] law as now passed by the Iraqi Parliament; that I would furnish copies of this law to the American school interests; that I would invite the heads of these schools to meet and formulate their objections to the law; and that this committee would then meet at the Foreign Office in order to discuss the matter with officials of the Ministry of Education with a view to bringing about reconciliation of the various points at issue. However, in agreeing to this procedure, I informed the Foreign Minister that I am not authorized to offer specific suggestions or to accept specific proposals, and that I could only urge that the Iraqi Government avoid taking unilateral action in respect to its international obligation, which would be prejudicial to American interests. I also informed him that even if the heads of American schools in Iraq should be disposed after consultation with officials of the Government to accept any proposed arrangement under the new law as enacted, it would still be necessary for me to submit the entire matter to my Government for its consideration, for individual American citizens are not entitled to waive their own rights or the rights of other American citizens guaranteed to them by treaties or other international instruments.
I will keep the Department informed of further developments, and, for its information, I am enclosing copies of the law29 as translated from an Arabic text given me by the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩