IRAQ : A STUDY IN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT By Philip Willard
Ireland, Ph.D.
Dr. Ireland has made a most pains- taking and elaborate study (Jonathan Cape, 15s.) of the highly involved series of events connected with Iraq since the War, and has even included a chapter on " Arab Nationalism in Iraq before 1914," a path which feisi have trodden. The story of the mandate which never became a mandate, but was turned into a treaty ; of the treaty which gave birth to a protocol, a deuterocol and a hystero-proterocol and, in spite of this pronounced fecundity, came to an untimely end ; of the treaty which, after incredible birth-pangs, was never ratified ; and of the treaty which is now in force, is told with a wealth of detail which may intimidate any but the specialised student, but with an ease of narrative which is remarkable. What it all. really means in the way of " political development " is a question which Dr. Ireland is not rash enough to answer offhand. " Iraqi-Assyrian re- lations are held to be outside the scope of this study " ; we are told- very little about the Iraq army ; and Beqir Sidky had still to be murdered when the volume went to press. Dr. Ireland calls his last chapter " Progress or Retro- gression ? " The question-mark is eloquent.
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