740.0011 European War 1939/11819: Telegram
The Minister Resident in Iraq (Knabenshue) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 8—8 p.m.]
140. On basis of advice of British Army and Air Force officers the British Ambassador assumed that the Iraqi Army would be subdued within 3 days. Our plans for the protection of American citizens and British subjects were based on that assumption and contemplated protection solely against mob violence. The sudden move of Iraqi Army to Habbaniya upset calculations. We then had to deal for more than 1 month with a hostile gangster fifth column illegal government under the direction of Grobba, the former German Minister to Iraq. The police guard which was first placed around the Legation solely for our protection afterwards made us prisoners within the compound. At my request, I was allowed telephone communication but only with the Foreign Office. The threat to bomb the Legation should not have been made. They should have demanded the surrender of British subjects. When that demand was subsequently made I agreed subject to official guarantees for their proper treatment. The Iraqi government did nothing further in the matter, leaving the refugees at the Legation and treating it as a concentration camp. I was permitted to send only plain language telegrams to the Department through the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The most outrageous threat was to arrest all Americans including myself and staff and expel us because of the dismissal of Iraqi students from the American University at Beirut. I received two nasty notes accusing me of holding myself aloof from the Gailani government. This was true to a certain extent because we had not recognized that government although I had established informal contact with the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
They denied that there was need for my protective measures against mob violence in spite of the arrest of two Americans who were kept in protective custody for one week before being turned over to the Legation and also in spite of the government’s declaration of Jehad. The mob violence which took place subsequently is what I expected in the beginning but the military activity held the tension in check until the end. I maintained an attitude of correctness and tactful acquiescence to all legitimate demands and made no demands myself which might have embarrassed our position and thus I believe prevented our molestation. My protection of British subjects residing near the Legation was a quid pro quo for the Embassy’s offer to protect American citizens in their area and for British Consuls at Mosul and Basra [Page 513] to protect American citizens in their areas where I had no means for doing so. Plans made in previous years provided for the evacuation by British Air Force of both British and American nationals and on the present occasion they actually evacuated American women with their own. While my action may have caused the Department some anxiety and even embarrassment, I feel that the circumstances warranted it and that there was no honorable alternative.
British troops numbering less than 1,000 today, June 5, occupied the camp in Baghdad which had previously been prepared for the transit of British troops through Iraq in accordance with the Anglo-Iraq Treaty. The column of British troops en route from Basra will reach here within a week.
It is my considered opinion that most of the Iraqi Army and Iraqi people are anti-British and that if the Germans make an appreciable thrust in this direction the Iraqi Army will arise against the British unless the British maintain here a force adequate to stop a German thrust and at the same time keep Iraqis under control. It appears that the British have arranged for the stationing in Iraq of four divisions. This might prove adequate, but in any case I consider that developing events will create an increasingly dangerous situation for Americans and I am therefore intending to use all my persuasive powers to influence all Americans to leave the country as soon as possible.