The Council of the League of Nations met on Wednes.
day, and next week the Assembly will reopen. No ques- tion which affects Great Britain is at the moment attracting more attention than the problem of Mosul, involving as it does the boundary between Iraq and Turkey. As the matter was referred to the League, the League has to decide, and it is a misunderstanding of the whole situation to talk as though there were a possibility of direct negotia- tion between Great Britain and Turkey. The Report presented to the League by the Boundary Commission is a laborious document which goes back into the dim and distant past and incidentally provides a map illustrating Xenophon's Retreat ! The sense of the Report, as we have already explained, is that the best destiny for the extremely mixed population of Mosul would be to become part of Iraq if Iraq could obtain the benefits of the British mandate for twenty-five years more ; but that if Iraq cannot obtain this guarantee of stability Mosul strictly ought to be handed back to Turkey.
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