HC Deb 21 December 1955 vol 547 cc2032-4
Lord John Hope

With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House. I will make a statement on the Special Agreement of 4th April, 1955, between the United Kingdom and Iraq.

As the House will recall, the Memorandum attached to Note No. 2 which referred to the Special Agreement, provided that certain property in Iraq was to be handed over to the Government of Iraq and paid for at its in situ value. As a result of subsequent negotiations, the value of this property has been agreed at £2,755,000. It has also been agreed that the common interest of Her Majesty's Government and the Government of Iraq in the defence of the area will best be served by an arrangement whereby Her Majesty's Government waive the payment of this sum and the Government of Iraq undertake in return to devote in the years 1956 and 1957 at least £2 million to the purchase in the United Kingdom of arms, equipment and defence stores and the remainder to expenses connected with the training of Iraqi forces in co-operation with our own. The Government of Iraq has also undertaken to make available in Iraq, free of charge, certain facilities for the British Armed Forces.

Details of this Agreement are contained in an Exchange of Notes between the Prime Minister of Iraq and Her Majesty's Ambassador at Bagdad, which were signed in Bagdad yesterday. The text will be available when I sit down.

By this Agreement we are in effect putting installations which we have built up over the years in Iraq for the defence of the Middle East area, at the free disposal of the Government of Iraq, as our friend and partner in the Bagdad Pact, to be used by them for the same common purpose. For their part the Government of Iraq are undertaking to provide free of charge certain essential facilities for our forces and to purchase arms in this country.

These measures are designed to strengthen the close connection between British forces and the forces of Iraq and thereby to consolidate the new defensive association of the Bagdad Pact. My right hon. Friend was greatly impressed during his recent visit to Bagdad by the need to use the new opportunities offered by the Pact to develop co-operation in the Middle East region which, as the House is aware, is now faced with a serious new threat to its security and independence. This new Agreement is an important contribution to this end.

Mr. Robens

May I ask whether, in the event of conflict in the Middle East between Arab States and Israel, the installations and arms now to be supplied under this Agreement are to be used against the Jews, or whether the arrangements made are such that the additional arms and the military installations will not be used for any purpose other than that of the development of the Bagdad Pact and its collective defence organisation?

Lord John Hope

Yes, Sir. The latter statement is correct. The arrangement is entirely within, and for the purposes of, the Bagdad Pact.

Mr. Robens

Is it the case that in part of the Agreement it is made quite clear that these arms must not be used for any other purpose?

Lord John Hope

It is the case that they are to be used for purposes in connection with the Agreement.

Mr. Robens

The hon. Gentleman is dodging the question, which is a very straightforward one. Under what part of the Agreement is it made absolutely clear that these arms will not be used for any purpose other than that of defence under the Bagdad Pact?

Lord John Hope

I should have thought that that followed. Perhaps this will allay any anxieties that are in the right hon. Gentleman's mind. This Agreement does not impinge in any way on, or alter in any way, our commitments under the Tripartite Declaration at all.