Speaking at the Lausanne Conference of 1922-23, Lord Curzon said: "In so far as they are now settled with the borders of British influence, they [the Assyrians] are assured of our friendly interest and protection". In the House of Commons, in 1931, Dr. Drummond Shiels, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, said: "The Assyrians. were a people to whom we were under special obligations". And in 1932 Lord Passfield, Secretary of State for the Colonies, gave assurances that "after the conclusion of any treaty, and after the admission, if it were brought about, of Iraq into the League of Nations, the welfare of the Assyrian people would be a matter of the closest concern of H.M. Government."

-- British Brigadier-General J. G. Browne
The Assyrians: A Debt of Honour, 1937