Office of the Historian

890G.24/22: Telegram

The Minister Resident in Iraq (Knabenshue) to the Secretary of State

Baghdad, January 9, 1942—4 p.m.
[Received January 10—4:11 a.m.]

8. Lend-Lease having been extended to Turkey and Egypt1 the Prime Minister2 asks that it be extended to Iraq. He says that they want nothing for the moment but desire the privilege because of its moral effect and prestige value. He has discussed matter with the British Ambassador3 because it might involve Anglo-Iraq Treaty of Alliance.4 Ambassador is referring it to London with favorable recommendation. I likewise recommend it on same conditions as Egypt and on condition that anything ultimately supplied be in agreement with the British inasmuch as British security and war needs this area should be first consideration. Bullitt5 shares my opinion.

Knabenshue
  1. For correspondence regarding lend-lease aid to Turkey and Egypt, see Foreign Relations, 1941, vol. iii. pp. 814 ff. and pp. 299 ff., respectively.↩
  2. Nuri as-Said.↩
  3. Sir Kinahan Cornwallis.↩
  4. Signed at Baghdad, June 30, 1930, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. cxxxii, p. 363.↩
  5. William C. Bullitt, on special mission in the Near East; see footnote 14, p. 10.↩