13 4 office of the Council of Ministers, Confidential No.456. Baghdad, 29 th January, 1931. 1st February Dear Sir Francis, I have received your letter No. P.0./18 dated 26th January, 1931, concering Mhe elucidation of certain points in the Anglo 'Iraq Treaty signed on 30th June, last. 2. The 'Iraq Government regret that they are unable to concur in the contents of Your Excellency's above mentioned letter in regard to expenditure on the affording of the facilities dealt with in the last sentence of Article IV of the Treaty. Right from the commencement of the negotiations for the conclusion of the Treaty and until I received Your Excellenay's letter under reply I always heard from Your Excellency that the expensesof the British Army (? Forces) in the event of a combined expedition would be borne by the British Government. The 'Irag Government cannot contemplate a condition arising of a nature leading to concertion of efforts for combined defence in the interest of 'Irag alone, but, on the other hand, believe that any combined defence undertaken, whatever the motive, will also be in the interest of the British Government. Had there been no agreement over this fundamental principle, i.e. community of interests between the two parties and "the existence (sic) cooperation for the defence of common interests, the Treaty would not have been concluded in its present form, in particular Article IV with which we are now dealing. A point which arrests the attention is that previous treaties did not place on the shoulder of * Iraq any such financial obligations; and as the present treaty is (? intended to be more advantageous to Iraq than the former treaties, it should be less likely to contain provisions which involve 'Iraq in obligations of this nature. Moreover, it is a common international principle that when two allied governments undertake a combined expedition each government bears the expenses of her own forces. I shall be very grateful if Your Excellency
