§ Mr. Leckieasked the Prime Minister whether he will consider the appointment of a small committee to make inquiries as to the practicability of settling the 30,000 homeless Assyrian Christians in one of our Dominions or Colonies, in view of the great hardships they are undergoing?
§ The Prime MinisterSo far as territory administered under the authority of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom is concerned, most thorough and exhaustive consideration has already been given to the possibility of re-settling the Assyrians of Iraq in these areas. As a result of the initial investigation which was begun when the Council of the League of Nations decided in October, 1933, to aim at the re-settlement of this community outside Iraq, a scheme for settlement within the Colony of British Guiana was put before the Committee of the League Council which is responsible for handling the Assyrian problem. The League Committee were, however, obliged to come to the conclusion that for overwhelming reasons this scheme was impracticable.
After the abandonment by the League in July, 1936, of a further scheme for the settlement of the Assyrians in the Ghab district of Syria, His Majesty's Government undertook a new inquiry into the possibility of establishing the 1142W Assyrians in territory within the British Colonial Empire. Unfortunately, as the United Kingdom representative informed the League Council in September last, the same obstacles which have prevented a successful outcome of the attempts to settle the Assyrians in the rest of the world have operated just as strongly in the case of the territories within the Colonial Empire. Despite the close attention which the Government have given to the matter, the difficulties in the way of the settlement of Assyrians in any of those British territories which are not automatically excluded by climatic conditions have proved to be insuperable.
The question of settling Assyrians in the Dominions is a matter for the Dominion Governments themselves. The Dominions have, however, been approached direct by the Assyrian Committee of the League Council and they have made it clear that for various reasons they are unable to accept the Assyrian community in their territories.
In the circumstances I regret that I do not consider that it would serve any useful purpose to set up a fresh committee of inquiry as proposed by my hon. Friend.
His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom will, however, continue as in the past to give all the assistance that they can to the League Council's Committee, and they have already informed the League of their intention to recommend Parliament to vote a substantial proportionate share (amounting to nearly £22,000) of the cost of a scheme estimated to require some £51,000 which was adopted by the Council of the League on the 29th September last to establish on a satisfactory material basis nearly 9,000 Assyrians from Iraq who have been provisionally resettled by the League Committee on the River Khabur in northeastern Syria. As regards the Assyrians remaining in Iraq, His Majesty's Government have been happy to learn from the declaration recently made to the League Council by the Iraqi Minister for Foreign Affairs of the intention of his Government to arrange for a special expert investigation into the economic situation of those Assyrians and to inform the League in due course of the resultant report and of the effect which had been given to its recommendations.