890E.01/5–2245: Telegram
The Chargé in Iraqi (Moreland) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 22—9:30 p.m.]
198. Following note from the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs30 was delivered to me this afternoon:
“Your Excellency has undoubtedly read the exciting news reported in recent telegrams concerning the submission by General Beynet, France’s delegate in Syria and the Lebanon, of proposals for the conclusion of a treaty to embody economic, cultural and strategical privileges between France and the Republics of Syria and the Lebanon; also the news of the landing of French troops on the territory of the two countries, whose number has now reached 2,000 men without the permission or approval of the Syrian and the Lebanese Governments; and the resultant disturbances while negotiations were being conducted between the two parties. The Syrians and the Lebanese have regarded this as a threat and as the application of force for imposing the French proposals on the Syrian Lebanese side in a completely military dominated atmosphere. This resulted in protests by the two Governments against the French side, and in the anxiety and disturbance of Syrian and Lebanese public opinion. These activities are exactly similar to the methods of force which the French authorities were accustomed to adopt in Syria and the Lebanon during the period in which it denied the Syrian and the Lebanese peoples the right to exercise government in their own country.
In view of these activities of the French Government and its return to the policy of force to impose its will on two free and independent peoples whose independence has been recognized by the Great Powers, at a time when the eyes of the big and small nations are directed with all their hopes and aspirations toward the consultations of the San Francisco Conference which is preparing the charter for the international peace organization and for the prevention of aggression and despotism, the Iraqi Government regrets to call the attention of the Government of the USA to the French policy of aggression which contradicts the statements which have been made by responsible Allied officials during this war, including the French themselves. I especially refer to the following statements:
- 1.
- The statement of Mr. Eden, the Foreign Secretary of Great Britain made on May 29, 1941.31
- 2.
- The statement of General Catroux made on behalf of General de Gaulle on June 8, 194132 announcing, in the name of France, the end of Mandate and rendering the Syrian and Lebanese peoples free and independent.
- 3.
- The statement of His Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador in Egypt on behalf of the British Government on June 8, 1941.33
- 4.
- The speech of Mr. Churchill the British Premier which he delivered in the House of Commons on September 9, 194134 and in which he announced that the administration in Syria would be handed over to the Syrians and that the realization of this would not have to await the postwar period. Mr. Churchill clearly reiterated that France would not have the position which it held before the outbreak of war—the French Government had decided upon the necessity of ending that position. Mr. Churchill concluded his statement by saying ‘Syria’s independence is a notable point in our foreign policy.’
- 5.
- General Catroux’s statement of November [December] 1943 in which he recognized in name of the French Committee of National Liberation the handing over of all powers to the Syrian and Lebanese Governments.35
- 6.
- The recognition by the Governments of the USA, USSR, and the Republic of China of the independence of Syria and the Lebanon. These Governments confirmed by their recognition their disapproval of any power having a special position in the territory of the said two Republics.
In view of the foregoing and whereas the Iraqi people are bound with Syrian and Lebanese peoples by strong ties of race, politics, culture and economics, and in view of Iraq’s special position vis-à-vis these two countries, the Iraqi Government cannot but strongly protest against the recent activities of the French Government, its landing of forces in Syrian and Lebanese territories without the permission of the two Governments, and its provocation of Arab public opinion. I therefore request Your Excellency kindly to transmit this protest to the Government of the USA and to request it persistently to interfere, mediate, and extend advice to the French Government to desist from the use of military pressure and the policy of violence on the said two Governments, and to withdraw the troops which it has landed. The Iraqi Government will hold French responsible for any grave consequences which might result in the event it fails to withdraw the troops which it has landed in Syrian and Lebanese territories, and for the critical situation which has arisen from the disturbed public opinion in the Arab countries which deeply condemns France’s return to the methods of force at the hour of victory in which the Allies and the United Nations have proclaimed the extermination of Fascist aggression.
Accept etc.,
Signed Hamdi Al Pachachi.”
- Prime Minister Hamdi al-Pachachi.↩
- British Cmd. 6289, Misc. No. 2 (1941): Speech by the Rt. Hon. Anthony Eden … delivered at the Mansion House on May 29, 1941. ↩
- Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. iii, p. 726.↩
- British Cmd. 6600, Syria No. 1 (1945): Statements of Policy by His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom in Respect of Syria and The Lebanon, 8th June–9th September, 1941, P. 2.↩
- For extract of speech pertaining to Syria, see British Cmd. 6600, Syria No. 1 (1945): Statements of Policy by His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom in Respect of Syria and The Lebanon, 8th June–9th September, 1941, p. 4.↩
- Presumably the agreement signed at Damascus on December 22, 1943, by Gen. Georges Catroux and the Governments of Syria and Lebanon; see telegram 9, December 24, 1943, 3 p.m., from Damascus, Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. iv, p. 1054. General Catroux had been, until July 1943, Delegate General and Plenipotentiary in Syria and Lebanon of the French Committee of National Liberation.↩