Coll 17/17 'FO Annual Reports, 1932-1938, 1947. Annual review of events 1939-1942. Political Review 1943-1944' [‎64r] (127/483)

[16798] c* 3
Parliament.
24. The general election finished on the 20th February. In all 114
candidates were elected, an increase of eight over the number returned at the
election of 1935. These increases were made ostensibly to bring the representa
tion of the constituencies into line with the latest census figures. The seats given
to the Diwaniyah and Muntafiq Provinces were not, however, justified by the
census, but were part of the Prime Minister’s plan for pacifying the Euphrates
tribes. He hoped in this way to satisfy the claims of all the contending factions.
Unfortunately, the Government went too low in the social scale of their choice of
candidates, and, as there were hundreds of minor tribal sheikhs who could claim
to be as good as those elected on official nominations, there were many who felt
jealous and slighted, and the popularity of the Cabinet suffered in consequence.
25. A feature of the new Chamber was the number of entirely new Deputies.
Fifty-two out of the total of 114 had not been elected before. Among those were
many young men holding advanced views and called by their critics Communists
or Bolsheviks. By contrast, the tribal representation was particularly large, and
the Cabinet soon found that it was no easy matter to keep the peace between these
two naturally antagonistic elements.
26. King Ghazi opened Parliament on the 27th February, and the following
officers were elected :—
President of the Senate, Muhammad Ridha-al-Shabibi.
President of the Chamber, Fakhri-al-Jamil.
From the political point of view the characteristic feature of the session was the
issue of communism. The Cabinet’s declared intention “to settle the land
question on principles of equity and public interest and to divide State lands
among the people in such a way as to preserve the right of individuals ’ ’ had been
interpreted in many quarters as a plan to dispossess the large landowners and to
break up, for the benefit of the peasant class, the estates which they hold on lease
from the Government. This suspicion was strengthened by the advanced theories
which several Ministers were known to hold and by the presence in the Chamber
of the young Radicals mentioned above. Moreover, those who wished to create
difficulties for the Prime Minister and his colleagues played on the fears of the
propertied classes by attributing to the Cabinet extreme communistic proclivities.
Several heated debates took place on this issue, but, in spite of his categoric
denials, the Prime Minister never quite succeeded in cleansing his Cabinet from
the “ Red ” stigma with which his Administration was branded by his opponents.
27. For the first time for many years there was no prolongation of the
session, and Parliament was prorogued on the 26th June. Little legislation of
first-class importance was enacted. The most interesting of the measures passed
are summarised below :—
The law for the attachment of revenue labels to articles of merchandise:
giving powers to the Government to prescribe by regulations that specified
articles shall bear a special label as evidence that customs or excise duty has
been paid on them.
The Supreme Defence Council Law : providing interdepartmental
co-ordination in all matters concerning the defence of the country.
The law for the indemnification of persons who carried out the national
movement: to indemnify those who took part in the cou'p d’Etat of
October 1936.
The law amending the Agricultural-Industrial Bank Law of 1935 : to
widen the scope of the bank’s work.
The Budget Law for the year 1937-38.
ID.
Estimated expenditure ... ... ... 5,318,885
Estimated revenue ... ... ... ... 5,322,000
The law authorising the Government to raise a foreign loan : to obtain
power to raise a foreign loan of £3 million.