The prospects of legal intervention with the Iraqi Government against anti-Jewish discrimination are “not very good,” Minister of State Kenneth Younger told Parliament today.
The Minister said that the British Government has drawn the attention of the Iraqi Government to the “unfortunate consequences” which might ensue if substance is given to the charge that the Jews are subjected to persecution. He added that the Iraqi Government “had taken note of this approach.”
The Minister was asked by a Conservative member of Parliament whether the British Government would, if necessary, take steps with the International Court of Justice in The Hague, in accordance with Article 37 of the Statute of 1945. Mr. Younger expressed doubts as to the validity of the obligations assumed by Iraq towards the defunct League of Nations. “I am prepared to consider the legal situation further, but the prospects are not very good from what I have seen,” he declared.
(New York newspapers today carried an official “warrant” by the Iraqi Embassy in the United States reading: “It is required by law that all Iraqi Jews who left Iraq with Iraqi passports since the first day of January, 1948, return to Iraq within a period of two months, effective from April 27th 1951, otherwise it will be considered that they left Iraq for good and to have dropped their Iraqi Citizenship after the expiration of above time. Any person failing to return will be subject to law No. (5) for 1951. For further information contact Iraq Embassies or Consulates.”)
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