Mosul Dispute

A summary of conclusions reached by the League's Commission, which recently reported on the Mosul dispute between Britain and Turkey (TIME, Jan. 5), was given out at Geneva.

The dispute concerns the boundary between the Kingdom of Iraq and the Republic of Turkey, Britain acting as the mandatory power for Iraq. Whether or no the oil wells of Mosul should belong to Iraq or Turkey is the substance of the dispute. The Commission thought that, if the wells are to belong to Iraq, Britain could not well withdraw as mandatory power for at least 20 or 25 years. If Britain should withdraw before that time (as she engaged to do in 1929 in a recently concluded treaty with Iraq), the oil area should revert to Turkey whose stability is greater than that of Iraq.