'Field notes: Mesopotamia. General Staff, India. February, 1917.' [‎49r] (104/350)

Since January 1, 1913, the Turks have partially replaced
their losses as follows :—
(1) About thirty-six Servian Schneider-Canet guns, on
which an embargo was laid before the outbreak of
war with the Balkan League, were seized at Salonica,
sent to Constantinople, and later supplied to the
Turkish forces behind the Tchataldja lines.
(2) Twenty-two batteries of field guns and the eighteen
batteries of mountain guns previously ordered were
delivered.
(3) An unknown number, of 'field guns qaptured by the
Bulgars were recaptured by the Turks when they
reoccupied Adrianople.
(4) Large orders for guns were made after the Balkan War,
and many of these guns were delivered at Constanti
nople in the autumn of 1914. These included many
10‘5 cm., 12 cm., and 15 cm. pieces. Others, in
cluding some heavy Austrian pieces, are said to
have arrived via Roumania in 1915. There can
be no doubt that many guns were given to Turkey by
the German and Austro-Hungarian Governments
after the outbreak of the European War in August
1914.
Guns of various types and calibres kept arriving in small
numbers from Central Europe through Bulgaria and Roumania
till the early summer of 1915.
Fighting qualities of local Arabs of Mesopotamia.
Of the tribes, the largest and most powerful is the Muntafik.
No estimate of the Muntafik is available, but they had 1,500
men in rebellion against the Turks at one time. Shaikh Sa’adun,
the late Chief of the Muntafik, collected, in 1910, against the
Kuwait forces, from his own followers and other tribes, some
4,000 horsemen, and a large number of dismounted men (no num
bers given), but no thaluls (riding camels). The Muntafik carry
in war swords and lances. They are also armed with rifles,
chiefly Martinis.
In ftie past they have been in rebellion against the Turkish
Government.