740.0011 European War 1939/10630: Telegram
The Minister Resident in Iraq (Knabenshue) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 5—10:50 a.m.]
115. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs in an official note requests me to inform the Department that on May 3rd a British plane tried to bomb a Mosque situated at Falujah at the time tribesmen were making their prayers.36 The Ministry points out that this horrible action which is not based on any human principles caused public disturbances and consternation and that this action will show the civilized world what the British forces are doing now against all rules of war of the civilized world.
This morning at 11:00 the Ministry for Foreign Affairs informed me that the commanding officer of the British forces in Iraq sent an [Page 506] ultimatum to the Iraqi Government demanding the withdrawal of the Iraq Army from the neighborhood of Habbaniya within 4 hours the time limit of which would expire at 12:00 noon today and that failure to comply with the terms of the ultimatum would result in the bombing of the public buildings of Baghdad by the British Air Force. The Iraqi Government sent a counter ultimatum to the effect that if the British bombed the public buildings of Baghdad the Iraq Government would bomb British subjects wherever they might be found. About an hour later I was informed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs that the Iraqi Government demanded that I should deliver to the appropriate Iraqi authorities, who would call at the Legation, all British subjects who had taken refuge at the Legation. I agreed to comply with this request immediately upon receipt of an official note from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs guaranteeing the proper treatment due to the British subjects in the present circumstances in accordance with the accepted principles of international law. I was informed that an official note making the demand and giving the guarantees I demanded would be handed to me when the appropriate authorities would call at the Legation for delivery of the British subjects. I have since been informed that the British subjects will be removed from the Legation when a suitable internment camp has been prepared for them.
- In later telegrams (No. 118, undated, No. 119, May 20, and No. 120, May 22) the Minister Resident in Iraq reported further Iraqi protests against alleged British bombing or machine gunning from the air of hospital cars and places inhabited by civilians (740.00116 European War 1939/384, 388; 740.0011 European War 1939/11117).↩