OPINION

January 5, 1960

ADENAUER: The West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer today celebrated his 84th birthday. Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss, who was at the reception, said the German army’s strength will rise to 250,000 men in the new year. The chancellor stated among other things: «In the times in which we live, the policy of any government depends on the military strength that backs it. There can be no policy without it. Peace, of course, has to be guarded but, as long as the world is divided, the exercise of any policy requires strength.» IRAN-IRAQ: Bagdad – The Iraqi daily newspaper al-Thawra has called on the United Nations to press for a referendum in Khuzestan, Iran’s sixth-largest province in terms of area, whose population is predominantly Arab. The paper added that Khuzestan, which borders on Iraq, has an area of 34,000 square miles and a population of 2,500,000, including 1,500,000 Arab nomads who have lived there for 14 centuries. The areas of Ahwaz and Shatt al-Arab are Arab and originally belonged to Iraq, but Iran later changed their names in order to adulterate the ethnic composition of their populations.

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