BREAKING UP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 May 1941, Page 5

BREAKING UP

RASHID ALPS REBEL FOLLOWING NO SIGN OF ANY HELP FROM GERMANY. WITHDRAWAL FROM HABBANIA AREA. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, May 13. A special correspondent in Iraq of the “Daily Telegraph” says it is increasingly evident I hat there is no German aid for Rashid Ali, whose I'ollowing is beginning to break up. Iraqui conscripts to the south of Al Qurna —the traditional site of the Garden of Eden —are deserting wholesale rather than continue to serve Rashid Ali. The Iraqui forces in the Habbania area have apparently lost heart for fighting. They are now 11 miles from the defence perimeter of the Royal Air Force cantonment, and they show no signs of intending to do anything except stay there unless they arc pushed out even farther. British troops who have encountered the Iraquis declare that there is no real determination in their resistance. This kick of spirit lends to confirm the impression that Rashid Ali’s antiBritish activities are not receiving the approval of the Iraq nation and particularly the army as a whole.

The announcement from Moscow of the resumption of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Iraq is regarded in London as an expression of a desire by Russia to regularise the relations with her near neighbours, rather than as a gesture of favouring Rashid Ali personally.