§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House do now adjourn."—[Mr. Joseph Henderson.]
§ 11.34 p.m.
Mr. Skeftington-Ledge (Bedford)After many weeks of balloting for this opportunity, I am very glad to be able to raise the matter tonight of the Christian communities in the Middle East, a matter which closely concerns British honour, and has important political and economic considerations in that part of the world. These age-old Christian minorities live among the Muslim populations of Syria, Persia, Iraq, and the Levant, and if I have most to say about the Assyrians it is because we are more deeply involved in their present position, and, indeed, their future—more involved than in the case of the other communities I have mentioned.
The Christians of today in the older cities of the Middle East present a varied picture. They live dangerously. They live almost as the Christians of the pre-Christian Roman Empire lived. They follow cults and rituals of considerable perplexity. Some of them are Catholic, some Orthodox, and many of them most certainly heretical. Massacres live in their memory, and they are very much on the look-out at the present time for protectors. I think that it is quite natural that they should be critical of the Muslims among whom they live. There are the Syrian Jacobites, the Syrian Catholics, the Greek and Armenian Orthodox, the Latin and Armenian Catholics, the Maronites, whose figurehead is his Beatitude Arida, a man nearly 90 years of age, and many others. Most of their venerable leaders seem to 810 combine holiness with political cunning, and they bear titles which indicate in many cases their far-flung spiritual jurisdiction. Recently, for instance, there died the Melkite Patriach, Cyril the Ninth, who, expiring at the ripe age of 91, was known as Patriach of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and all the East of the Melkites, 13th Apostle, Bishop of Bishops, and Father of Fathers.
The Assyrian Patriach whose proper title, dating from the Third Century, is, '"Patriach of the East," is, I believe, one of those attending the forthcoming Lambeth conference. I hope that he will impress on the Bishops there assembled the really tragic plight of the flock which I gather he, to some extent, looks after from a vantage point in the U.S.A. It seems to me there is very little he can do except pray for his compatriots, and use his influence to stop or at least curtail some of the absurd pronouncements which emanate from time to time from those Assyrians who are settled in America.
The position of many Christian communities in the Middle East is especially precarious in these days. The traditional tolerance of the Arabs towards minorities in their midst has been very much strained, and has not lessened since the recent developments in Palestine, or since the announcement of the withdrawal of British troops from that country and Egypt and Iraq. Even though these people are perforce siding at the present time with the Arabs among whom they are living, this country, and I hope my right hon. Friend recognises it, should use its utmost influences to check all hostile tendencies towards them and remind the Arab States that we should view the actual persecution of all minorities in their midst with the gravest disfavour.
No section is in greater risk and danger at the present time than that body known as the Assyrian Christians. They arc, as far as this country is concerned, in a unique position among minorities. We are indebted to them in a very special way and we have an overwhelming moral obligation towards them. Let me remind the House that they have for over 26 years been British Levy troops and their present rootless and homeless position dates back to the First World War when they left Turkish Kurdistan, and they were never re-incorporated there under the Peace Treaty as they really should have been. 811 No body of people in the Middle East of today has been more loyal to this country and if their disbandment from the Iraq Levy Force of the R.A.F. Regiment should take place, they will be left disarmed and unsupported to a dangerous extent. Abandoned at Habbaniyah, just on the main line of communication for the Iraq forces operating in Palestine, their situation would be serious indeed. The ill-feeling towards them is quite understandable because as British troops we have used the Assyrians during the years I have mentioned to quell rebellions and coups d'état during our occupation of Iraq.
Do not let us forget that their record in the last war was magnificent. I have already mentioned Habbaniyah. It was there in May, 1941, during the Nazi-inspired Rashid Ali revolt and the attack on our R.A.F. station, that they held and ultimately defeated a much superior force of enemy troops. Their brilliant victory resulted in the recapture of Baghdad and it smashed all German and Japanese designs for a linkage via the Persian Gulf. At a really critical juncture during the war they made a major contribution, I contend, to the Allied cause. The fact is that a mere 1,200 ground troops and a score of our brave and daring airmen defeated a well-equipped modern Army 20 times as strong. Nazi influence in Syria, Iraq and Persia collapsed as a result of this victory and with it the possibilities of a German attack on our new Ally, Russia. The world's largest oil-belt, stretching from Maikop in Russia to Bahrein in the Persian Gulf was thenceforward safely in Allied hands. Thus, I maintain, we owe a really big debt of honour to the Assyrian Christians, as our comrades and as soldiers.
What is their position today? In a hostile country they are facing virtual annihilation unless we do something to help. Iraq today is in chaos. Governmental authority has completely disintegrated and I am sorry to say, so far as my judgment of the position is concerned, that there is a profound anti-British mood throughout that area of the Middle East. In a letter I received the other day from a friend in Baghdad, he tells me that discipline has completely collapsed. It is considered quite normal for ordinary school children to go on deputations to 812 Cabinet Ministers who are so afraid of them that they not only pat them on the back but they grant all their whims and fancies in a policy of continuous appeasement. Discontent, hunger and starvation, combined with abysmal poverty, are the order of the day. What is the outcome? It is revolutionary discontent. At the present that revolutionary discontent—and we should be thankful for this—is of a negative character. But in these conditions Muslims are denouncing and speaking of Christians, who are their neighbours, in terms which the German Nazis reserved only for the Jews.
No wonder that the morale of our co-religionists is at a very low ebb. I do not know, of course, whether the Portsmouth Treaty, which was so rashly entered upon, ever took care of the future of the Assyrian Christians. The fact remains that a new treaty seems unlikely under present conditions, as also seems the hope of the present Iraq Government, providing any security whatever, or even livable conditions, for these old soldiers of ours. I ask my right hon. Friend to explore every avenue of relief for the plight of these people. The number of men is not very large. I compute it roughly at 15,000, and I suggest to my right hon. Friend that fresh approaches should be made to the Dominions as well as to the United States of America with the object of resettling this body of Assyrian Christians. I know that some approaches have already been made—
§ Mr. George Thomas (Cardiff, Central)Would they leave?
§ Mr. Skeffington-LodgeThey have already expressed their great desire to leave Iraq and to be settled elsewhere. Could they not be used in connection with the African groundnuts scheme? Could they not be given a new home in some part of East Africa, say in Eritrea; or what about the Broome or Darwin region of Australia where, in my judgment, they would make admirable settlers? Prejudice against them as Asiatics could, and should, be easily overcome by proper publicity as to their great qualities. I am told that it is very hard indeed to distinguish them from the best type of Greek or from similar people in South-East Europe as a whole. They are very good mechanics. During the war they were said to be the best drivers in the Orient. They are used to hard climatic 813 conditions. They know a great deal about agriculture and I consider that they would be a valuable asset in any country which could absorb them in its wide open spaces. The fact is that their present position is fraught with acute danger for them and also, I would add, for this country. In letters which I have seen they still express their deep though rapidly fading loyalty to Great Britain. Do not let us overlook the high strategic value of Iraq, and the need for treating properly our few remaining friends in that country. Hahbeneyeh is a key air base in that region of the world.
I recognise our own great economic difficulties at the present time in approaching and solving this problem, and I also recognise the high cost that would be involved in resettling these people; but I contend that our good faith and honour is definitely at stake. Will my right hon. Friend at least consider making a sympathetic statement on this very human affair? Perhaps the Foreign Office would even invite three or four representative Assyrians to come over here for a talk, and to explain the position to them. Where there is a will there is a way in these matters. Pious exhortations asking them to be good Iraqis are simply useless in the circumstances in which they are placed. Only real action, which takes account of all the facts, will help them, and I look for this, and I hope not in vain, from my right hon. Friend.
§ Dr. Segal (Preston)I am sure the whole House will re-echo the sentiments so movingly expressed by the hon. Member. We must all, regardless of party, have the deepest sympathy for the plight of these Assyrian Christians, who form a historic sect with roots in the remote past dating back to the earliest days of the Christian Church. Their welfare must always be a real concern to this House. At the same time, it is just as well to consider the accuracy of some of the statements which have just been made. While we all acknowledge the outstanding services of the Assyrian Christians in the R.A.F. levies during the war, the fact remains that the greater part of the burden in the Habbeneyeh revolt fell on the small English units of the R.A.F. Let us acknowledge that the members of the Assyrian community who served in the R.A.F. levies did perform outstanding services to the Allied cause. They were skilled mechanics, and devoted workers 814 in the R.A.F., and I think the Government did recognise that by the fact that they were not disarmed, as the hon. Member stated. When they ceased service with the R.A.F. they were all allowed to retain their arms, they were granted a generous amount of compensation, and were given extensive help from the R.A.F. in welfare and medical treatment.
While the plight of this small community remains perhaps even greater today than it was during the war, the danger lies not simply from the surrounding Arab units, the Iraqis and Syrians, but perhaps even more from the Kurdish tribes. A plea has often been made on their behalf by the exiled leaders of the Nestorian Christians. Bishop Mar Shimun, who is exiled in New York, made an appeal which has evoked a sympathetic response from the United States. A real duty falls on this House to urge on the Minister who is to reply that H.M. Ambassador in Baghdad should keep a watchful eye on their welfare and safety, and do everything in his power to solve this age-long tragedy, which will remain—until their plight is remedied—a lasting reflection on the charity and sympathy of all communities in this country, and on the whole Christian Church the wide world over.
§ 11.55 p.m.
The Minister of State (Mr. McNeil)I am sure the House is indebted to my two hon. Friends for pleading this cause with such zeal and such marked sincerity. My hon. Friend the Member for Bedford (Mr. Skeffington-Lodge) was good enough to give me some notice of what he was going to say. I must plead, however, that I did not know that he was going to attack the Portsmouth Treaty, criticise our general Middle East policy, and offer us some erudite ecclesiastical history—for which I am very grateful but on which I am completely uninformed. But on the question of this unfortunate minority of Christian Assyrians, who number about 30,000, not 15,000, I am moderately well informed. This is a question that has occupied the House at various times and the Foreign Office continuously. The Government have since 1916 attempted to address themselves to this problem, and even in my short term at the Foreign Office the Government have had a persistent flow of suggestions and of pleading on their behalf.
815 The question is, meantime, mainly hypothetical. These people are still in the employment of the Royal Air Force, and the Royal Air Force is responsible for their payment and for their conditions. Various schemes have been examined in an attempt to find some other place for their resettlement. Almost always the proposals have come back to the same point. It is easy to consider all the desirable places where these people might be settled, but all, because of their language and their associations, are found to be unsuitable. In the Colonies where these qualifications would not embarrass them, we come up against the second problem, that local legislatures contend that the introduction of such a number as 30,000 would prejudice the rights of the natives, and when we come to lands which are undeveloped we come up against the very substantial financial factor to which my hon. Friend has already drawn attention.
In 1936 a scheme was worked out for resettling these men in North Borneo. A careful estimate was made of the cost, and it ran to some £400,000. I therefore imagine that today a similar calculation would prove to be about £1,500,000. I had some experience of this kind of calculation and of this type of problem when I was associated with the International Organisation for Refugees. One other suggestion has been made by my hon. Friend, that they should be absorbed into the groundnuts scheme in Tanganyika. This does not rate at all, because the Tanganyika authorities laid it down as a condition that the workers should depart on the completion of that scheme. Therefore, there can be no question of settling these Assyrians under this scheme.
I regret to have to be, if not pessimistic, so cautious, but I do not want to mislead this unfortunate minority or any of their friends in the House. It is, perhaps, rather easy advice to say they should attempt to become good Iraqis. It is quite relevant to point out that they have attempted to do that for rather more than 30 years, not always with complete success. Nevertheless, when we have upon our hands so many desperate problems of resettlement of victims whose 816 state is even more precarious and desperate, it is obvious to everyone in the House it would be rash, and even dishonest, to say that I see any obvious opportunity of resettlement. Naturally, His Majesty's Government will be anxious to take time to consider any practical scheme directed towards that end. What I should say with firmness is this. Both my hon. Friends asked that the Government should exert themselves to protect these people. I ought to say that one of the few good byproducts in the Palestinian situation is that the traditionally tolerant attitude the Arabs have manifested towards these Christian minorities has been intensified and not, as my hon. Friend suggests, diminished during this unfortunate period. However, if there were any indications that these Christian minorities, or any other minority, in the Middle East countries were threatened or any protection was not being afforded to them, my hon. Friends can be assured that His Majesty's Government will use any instrument lying legitimately to their hand to impress upon the Governments of the Middle East their obligations as members of the United Nations and our expectations of them in this matter. But I would be most careful to conclude by saying that these people economically are still a charge on the R.A.F. Regiment. All our information goes to show that the traditional tolerance of the Iraqi Government towards these people is being maintained and I see them meantime in no danger.
§ Mr. Driberg (Maldon)If Mar Shimun, or any other responsible spokesman of the Assyrians, comes over for the Lambeth Conference in a few weeks, will my right hon. Friend see him and talk over the problem with him?
§ The Question having been proposed after Ten o'Clock on Thursday evening and the Debate having continued for half an hour, Mr. DEPUTY-SPEAKER adjourned the House without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.
§ Adjourned at Four Minutes past Twelve o'Clock a.m.