Coll 17/20(2) 'Iraq. Anglo-Iraq treaty of 1948.' [‎5r] (9/56)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS
britannG. MAjis^V' boo
YERNMENT
GE MENTS)
^RCHW £9
January 15, 1948
Section 1
SPEECH BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AT
THE SIGNATURE OF THE ANGLO-IRAQI TREATY,
15th JANUARY, 1948
Prime Minister, my Lords, Ladies and
Gentlemen,
I would like, first of all, to express
the gratitude of His Majesty’s Govern
ment and, I am sure, of our visitors
to-day, to you, your town clerk, and your
staff for the arrangements they have made
for this ceremony At such short notice. We
are very glad to be in Portsmouth. This
city bears the scars of enemy attack. It
also bears the formidable appearance of
continuity, in spite of that attack, and it
is an indication not only of the vindication
of British policy in fighting Nazism and
aggression, but it is an indication of the
determination of the people of this country
to maintain for themselves, and, as far as
they can, for the people of the world, the
principles of liberty and social justice.
To-day we have met to sign a new treaty
with Iraq, and nothing has given me per
sonally greater pleasure than to have had
the opportunity of meeting the Prime
Minister of Iraq, the Foreign Secretary,
Minister of Defence, and the ex-Prime
Ministers of that country in these negotia
tions. These, my Lord Mayor, have not
been the kind of negotiations wherein two
people seek to take advantage of one
another, or to reconcile grievances; they
have been negotiations to put our friend
ship into words in accordance with the
stage that our actual relationships have
reached. We have removed everything
that was objectionable in the old treaty and
we have established in this one what has
been, in fact, the practice for some time,
and that is, to meet each other on terms of
absolute equality, and to determine to make
our mutual contribution according to our
capacity, our strength, our man-power, and
our will to the peaceof the world. Secondly,
this treaty is the beginning of a new series
of treaties regularising and expressing the
friendship between this country and the
Arabic world. We prize that friendship.
I am sure that they equally value it too.
We believe that both of us have a contri
bution to make. We are determined to
make it, and I therefore proceed to the
signature of this treaty to-day, if I may
say so, almost with a nice omen, for the
sun is shining upon us, which I think is
a good augury, an augury that we have done
right, that we have confirmed this friend
ship, and that we shall carry it through
together so as to establish a link between
the great Arabic peoples and ourselves, and
to preserve what is valuable to them and
to us, each with our independence, but each
making a contribution.
110-141