Destructive Elements

At first, all was as friendly as Scheherazade's smile. Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin hailed Britain'snew 20-year alliance with Iraq as the start of an era "regularizing and expressing the friendship between this country and the Arabic world." The treaty with Iraq confirmed Britain's right to-keep troops in Iraq, train and arm the Iraqi army, maintain airbases. Iraq's Regent Abdul Illah replied to a congratulatory message from Bevin: "I recall with appreciation your precious efforts that have led to this happy result."

A lot of people in Bagdad were not happy. Thousands surged through Rashid Street, Bagdad's dingy main thoroughfare, clamoring for "full independence and sovereignty." Soldiers turned back a mob which tried to close in on the British Embassy. Police and soldiers fired into the crowds. Students went on protest strikes. One correspondent reported that "girl students . . . demonstrated as fiercely as the men, clashed with police, and received bites and injuries; this aroused the public."

In three days of rioting, eleven people were killed. Regent Abdul Illah nervously announced: "Whereas ... the treaty does not realize national rights and aspirations and cannot be a useful instrument to foster Anglo-Iraqi friendship, we promise the Iraqi people that no such treaty will be ratified."

Next day the crowds demonstrated again, to thank the Regent. One paper hailed "the martyrs of the treaty which Britain wrote with ink to bondage Iraq 20 years, and which Iraqis obliterated with blood in three days."

In Britain, where he had gone to sign the treaty, Prime Minister Saleh Jabr hopefully remarked that "during our temporary absence, some destructive elements in the country . . . exploited some innocent students and succeeded in creating disorders. On our return to Iraq we shall explain the ... treaty to Parliament and people. . . ."

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