Mr. LAMBERTasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether two Ministers, the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Commerce, have been deported from Bagdad where these men are what is their offence; what trial have they had; and when it is intended to permit them to return to Iraq?
Mr. J. H. SIMPSONasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies the grounds on which Saiyid Talib, Minister of Interior in the former Provisional Government of Iraq, was deported to Ceylon in March, 1921; whether he is still an exile from his country; and whether he has had any form of trial?
Mr. LINFIELDasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies by whose authority the Minister of Commerce in King Feisal's late Cabinet was deported from Bagdad to the island of Hensai in August last: whether he is still detained in that island: whether there has been any form of; and on what grounds this action was taken?
§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREThe circumstances in which Saiyidi Talib Pasha, then Minister of Interior in the provisional Arab Government, was deported from Bagdad two years ago were fully explained to the House in an answer given by the Secretary of State for the Colonies in the late Government on the 10th May, 1921. No other Minister has been deported from Bagdad. A gentleman who had previously held office as Minister of Commerce was deported with certain other individuals by the High Commissioner during King Feisal's illness on the 285W 26th August, 1922, at a time when no Cabinet was formed. The offence consisted in this case in association with a public declaration of hostility to the established Government, and an invitation to sedition and disorder. No trial was held in either case. The latter of these two gentlemen in question is now at Honjam, in the Persian Gulf Saiyid Talib Pasha is at present living on the Continent. I am unable to say when either of these gentlemen will be permitted to return to Iraq.