§ Lieut.-Commander FLETCHERasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what is the position as regards the settlement of the Assyrians in Iraq?
§ Mr. EDENAs the hon. and gallant Member is no doubt aware, the Committee of the Council of the League of Nations which has this matter in hand was instructed by the Council after the breakdown of the Ghab scheme to continue its efforts to find a permanent place of settlement outside Iraq for those Assyrians who still wish to leave that country. The task is a difficult one, and I cannot say more at present than that the Committee is aiming at making proposals at the January session of the Council. Meanwhile some 8,500 Assyrians from Iraq are provisionally settled in the Upper Khabur region in Syria. In the course of the reply which I gave on 4th November to a question by the right hon. and gallant Gentleman the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Colonel Wedgwood) about recent events in Iraq, I mentioned that there was nothing to show that the safety of the Assyrians in that country was in jeopardy. I am glad to say that this is still the case.