The Shiite issue in Iraqi politics, 1941

Abstract

In the April 1988 number of Middle Eastern Studies I published a despatch of December 1950 from the British Ambassador in Baghdad dealing with SunniShiite tensions and both their immediate and their more remote causes. As I wrote in the introductory note preceding the despatch, to judge by the records, the Shiite problem in Iraqi politics is hardly ever reported or discussed by British officials or representatives in Iraq. This was certainly the case in the period immediately preceding the outbreak of Anglo-Iraqi hostilities following Rashid Ali's seizure of power at the beginning of April 1941. Nor is there any evidence that in the period immediately following the collapse of Rashid Ali's movement, the British Ambassador, Sir Kinahan Cornwallis, thought it worthy of his attention. The issue, interestingly enough, was raised neither by the Foreign Office nor by the Baghdad Embassy, but by the War Office. The Foreign Office files include the copy of a telegram of 6 May 1941 sent by the War Office to the General in command of the British troops at Basra and repeated to the Commander-in-Chief, Middle East. The telegram declared: