Iraq Turns Down New Pact with Britain, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 5, 1948.

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BAGHDAD, Feb. 4 (AP)—Iraq has rejected the Portsmouth treaty of alliance with Britain, an official statement said tonight.

The action was taken by the Council of Ministers and was conveyed in a note to the British representative here, the statement added.

(A British Foreign Office spokesman said in London no action was contemplated because the old 1932 treaty of alliance between the two countries remains in effect.

(Under that pact, which expires in 1957, both countries gave pledges of mutual aid in the event of war. It permitted Britain to maintain personnel on two strategic airfields and obligated the British to arm and train Iraqi forces.

(Under the recently negotiated treaty, British troops would have been permitted to enter Iraq in event of war. The airfields were turned over to Iraq, but Britain retained the right to their use. The provision for training Iraqi troops was retained.)

The new treaty was negotiated by former Premier Salih Bey Jabur. Riots that flared when terms of the treaty became known here caused many deaths and resulted in the downfall of his Cabinet. Salih Jabur fled Baghdad.