It has been alleged that the British used chemical weapons in Mesopotamia in 1920, during the
Iraqi revolt (''Ath Thawra al Iraqiyya al Kubra''), in the period of the
British Mandate over Mesopotamia. Use of tear gas and lethal poison gas against Iraqi rebels was considered, and the use of gas was promoted by
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
, head of the
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
, who encouraged research into the dropping of
mustard gas
Mustard gas or sulfur mustard is a chemical compound belonging to a family of cytotoxic and blister agents known as mustard agents. The name ''mustard gas'' is technically incorrect: the substance, when dispersed, is often not actually a gas, b ...
by air.
Tear gas
Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ad ...
artillery shells were transported to Iraq and approval was given for their use, but tests by the army found them to be impractical and they were not used in combat. Efforts to develop gas weapons for use in Iraq were halted by the British over concerns about embarrassing political repercussions following the signing of the
Washington Disarmament Treaty, which contained a provision outlawing poison gas, although the British government held that the use of tear gas remained legally permissible. Practical difficulties ultimately prevented the use of gas, rather than any moral inhibitions.
Historiography
Historian
Charles Townshend
Charles Townshend (28 August 1725 – 4 September 1767) was a British politician who held various titles in the Parliament of Great Britain. His establishment of the controversial Townshend Acts is considered one of the key causes of the Ame ...
made the "first assertion of British chemical weapons use in Iraq" in his 1986 essay ''Civilisation and "Frightfulness": Air Control in the Middle East Between the Wars'':
Britain was not a free agent in the middle east, and would have to defer to the universal prejudice against all forms of gas. In vain did the Air Ministry stress that lethal concentrations were most unlikely to be reached under air bombardment (because - though this point was not stressed - of its low accuracy). In vain did they point out that the army had used SK gas shells in quantity against the Mesopotamian rebels in 1920 with 'excellent moral effect'.
In his book ''
World Orders Old and New
''World Orders Old and New'' is a book by Noam Chomsky, first published in 1994 and updated in 1996 by Columbia University Press. In the book, Chomsky writes about the international scene since 1945, devoting particular attention to events followi ...
'',
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...
claimed that Churchill was particularly keen on chemical weapons, suggesting they be used "against recalcitrant Arabs as an experiment". Churchill dismissed objections to the use of chemical weapons as "unreasonable" and stated: "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes".
In March and July 1992, US Representative
Henry B. González, speaking in the
House of Representatives, claimed that Britain used chemical weapons during the
Iraqi–Kurdish conflict
The Iraqi–Kurdish conflict consists of a series of wars and rebellions by the Kurdish people, Kurds against the central authority of Iraq during the 20th century, which began shortly after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and las ...
.
Criticism of allegations
The main source usually quoted in support of the idea that Britain used
poison gas
Many gases have toxic properties, which are often assessed using the LC50 (median lethal dose) measure. In the United States, many of these gases have been assigned an NFPA 704 health rating of 4 (may be fatal) or 3 (may cause serious or perman ...
in
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
is
Geoff Simons
Geoffrey Leslie Simons (23 November 1939 – 31 August 2011), best known as Geoff L. Simons was a British freelance writer. In the 1980s, he was chief editor at the National Computing Centre in Manchester. A prolific author of non-fiction, he wro ...
, ''Iraq: From Sumer to Saddam'' (1994), who stated that "gas was used against the Iraqi rebels in 1920". In the third edition of his book, ''Iraq: From Sumer to post-Saddam'' (2004), Simons wrote: "In the event, gas was used against the Iraqi rebels in 1920 with "excellent moral effect", though gas shells were not dropped from aircraft because of practical difficulties".
Another historian,
Lawrence James
Edwin James Lawrence (born 26 May 1943, Bath, England), most commonly known as Lawrence James, is an English historian and writer.
Biography
James graduated with a BA in English & History from the University of York in 1966, and subsequently u ...
, stated, "By September the local commander, General Sir
Aylmer Haldane, was beginning to get the upper hand, although he was still desperate enough to clamour for large supplies of poison gas. It was not needed, for air power had given his forces the edge whenever the going got tough". On whether gas was used he writes that: "RAF Officers asked Churchill... for use of poison gas. He agreed but it was not used".
Niall Ferguson, in his 2006 book ''The War of the World'', wrote: "To end the Iraqi Insurgency of 1920... the British relied on a combination of aerial bombardment and punitive village burning expeditions. Indeed, they even contemplated using mustard gas too, though supplies proved unavailable".
Anthony Clayton
Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonii'', a ''gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton, ...
wrote in ''The Oxford History of the British Empire'' that "the use of poisonous gas was never sanctioned".
A December 2009 article in the ''
Journal of Modern History
''The Journal of Modern History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering European intellectual, political, and cultural history, published by the University of Chicago Press. Established in 1929, the journal covers events from appro ...
'' by R. M. Douglas of
Colgate University
Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theologi ...
went through the surviving documentary sources and concluded that "while at various moments tear gas munitions were available in Mesopotamia, circumstances seeming to call for their use existed, and official sanction to employ them had been received, at no time during the period of the mandate did all three of these conditions apply" and that it was clear that no poison gas was used.
Douglas noted that Churchill authorised a shipment of artillery shells containing
ethyl iodoacetate
Ethyl iodoacetate is a chemical compound that is a derivative of ethyl acetate. Under normal conditions, the compound is a clear, light yellow to orange liquid.
Applications
Used by the British during World War I, it was codenamed SK gas, for the ...
, a tear gas, from Egypt to Iraq on 17 September 1920 for use by the army, but after trials on British soldiers the large quantity of shells needed to produce a significant irritant effect was found to be logistically impractical. The air force remained enthusiastic about the use of gas, and on 9 January 1922 Churchill approved the conversion of gas artillery shells for use from aircraft. However, this plan was halted by Churchill on 31 January under pressure from the
Air Council
Air Council (or Air Force Council) was the governing body of the Royal Air Force until the merger of the Air Ministry with the other armed forces ministries to form the Ministry of Defence in 1964. It was succeeded by the Air Force Board.
Mem ...
as the Washington Disarmament Treaty, signed on 7 January at the
Washington Naval Conference, had included a provision (article 5) prohibiting the use of "asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases". The War Office also instructed the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force in February that "as a result of a decision of the Washington Conference, it has been decided that the use of gas in any form is inadmissible."
Douglas observed that contradictory claims by historians and commentators surrounding the use of gas in Iraq were partly the product of an inaccurate September 1921 letter by J. A. Webster, assistant secretary at the Air Ministry, claiming that poison gas shells had already been used the army during the previous year's rebellion. In December 1921 the Air Ministry revised its position, stating that "it is not known whether
as shellswere used by the Army". The Army General Headquarters (GHQ) in Baghdad had informed
Percy Cox in November that "gas shells have not been used hitherto against tribesmen either by aeroplanes or by artillery". Douglas also noted that Churchill's forceful 1919 memo in support of gas had served to convince observers that weapons of mass destruction had been used when in fact they had not been, which ironically paralleled events in 2003.
British policy
The British 1914 ''Manual of Military Law'' stated that the
rules of war
The law of war is the component of international law that regulates the conditions for initiating war (''jus ad bellum'') and the conduct of warring parties (''jus in bello''). Laws of war define sovereignty and nationhood, states and territor ...
applied only to conflict "between civilized nations". It stated that "they do not apply in wars with uncivilized States and tribes", but the British commander in any conflict he partook in should observe "the rules of justice and humanity", according to his own individual discretion.
Some gas shells and protective clothing were shipped to British India in July 1919, with a further small shipment in January 1920, for use on the
North-West Frontier. However, a requisition for 16,000 shells and 10,000 gas masks was blocked by
Lord Sinha, the
Under-Secretary of State for India. He believed that a first use of chemical weapons by British and Indian forces would have serious implications, both moral and political, and that chemical weapons should be used only in retaliation for an Afghan or North-West Frontier Tribal chemical attack. In India, a temporary Travelling Gas School was set up in September 1920, but the matter then lapsed.
Britain had used gas weapons in the Middle East, most notably in the
Second Battle of Gaza against Ottoman forces in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. On that occasion, the use of gas did not prevent a British military defeat.
The use of
tear gas
Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ad ...
, not "only the most deadly gases", was considered; as shown in a
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
minute of 12 May 1919 in which
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
argued:
I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. We have definitely adopted the position at the Peace Conference of arguing in favour of the retention of gas as a permanent method of warfare. It is sheer affectation to lacerate a man with the poisonous fragment of a bursting shell and to boggle at making his eyes water by means of lachrymatory gas. I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected.[ companion volume 4, part 1]
See also
*
Chemical weapons and the United Kingdom
Chemical weapons were widely used by the United Kingdom in World War I. The use of poison gas was suggested by Winston Churchill and others in Mesopotamia during the interwar period, and also considered in World War II, although it appears that ...
*
RAF Iraq Command
Iraq Command was the Royal Air Force (RAF) commanded British Armed Forces, inter-service Command (military formation), command in charge of United Kingdom, British forces in Iraq in the 1920s and early 1930s, during the period of the British Man ...
*
Spanish use of chemical weapons in the Rif War
During the Third Rif War in Spanish Morocco between 1921 and 1927, the Spanish Army of Africa deployed chemical weapons in an attempt to put down the Berber rebellion against colonial rule in the region of Rif led by the guerrilla Abd el-Krim. F ...
References
Works cited
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:British Use Of Gas In Mesopotamia In 1920
Military operations involving chemical weapons in Iraq
Iraqi revolt of 1920
20th-century history of the Royal Air Force
20th-century military history of the United Kingdom
1920 in the United Kingdom
Winston Churchill
United Kingdom chemical weapons program