Iraq at War
Iraq's declaration of war on Germany, Italy and Japan has been made with the full assent of both Houses of Parliament, and with- out any pressure from the United Nations. It shows how completely Germany's efforts to stir up trouble, at the time when the threat or an invasion of Syria and the Middle East by way of Crete and Cyprus was a grave reality, have failed ; and of course it has been facilitated by the fact that Britain has built up a strong military p'sition in the rear of the Russian Armies south of the Caucasus. But that is not 211. Even with the United Nations in the ascendant
in the Middle East Iraq might well have been content with a policy of neutrality or non-belligerency ; and indeed that is the policy which might have seemed most natural, as putting her in line with Turkey, Persia and Afghanistan, the countries with which she had a treaty of mutual non-aggression and friendship signed five years ago and renewed last December. But the fact that she has spontaneously joined this country in the war against the Axis is evidence of the appreciation of the part that Britain has taken in building up this Arab State after the last war and concluding a treaty which gave the new kingdom complete independenc,:. Iraq's action is happy evidence of the fact that virtue is not always simply its own reward, and that honesty pays. Britain has done much to create a free Iraq in alliance with herself, and Iraq has taken measures to prove herself a staunch friend.
