'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎129v] (263/470)

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South of Zubair. The rainfall for miles around flows almost naturally into it and
forms a lake. The Jabal Sanam Railway now passes near the wells and has
interrupted the flow, with the result that the water has made a new channel for itself
and is lost. The lake usually runs dry in March, and then the wells are opened.
“ About 100 shallow wells exist, which are worked about 20 at a time. A well
is closed wheij the water becomes brackish and another opened. As the whole of
Zubair inhabitants draw their water from it, the place is thoroughly drained towards
the end of the summer, and at times there has been a considerable amount of sickness
due to this fact. Lack of water is, in fact, one of the chief drawbacks to living
in Zubair, and a movement is on foot to obtain water direct from the river by pipes.
The matter has been discussed with some prominent members of the town, and the
cost of the installation would be partly covered by voluntary contributions. It is
considered that the town would willingly provide the whole sum. I am of opinion
that, if this were done and road communications improved, Zubair would become
the favoured residential quarter of Basrah.”
Conclusion of Zubair Report. —I have little to add to the Assistant Political
Officer’s report. He himself has done good work among the tribes, and I look to
him to gradually instil in the mind of Shaikh Ibrahim the idea that his best interests
in the future lie in recognition of his nearness to modern progress as it will be exempli
fied in Basrah, and to the ordering of his conduct of affairs in harmony with the
desert on one side and urban stable civilisation on the other. The continuance
of Government in the settled portions of ‘Iraq will spread its sure, if slow, influence
on the Beduin mind, paving the way, perhaps, for that greater Arab State which
is one of the dreams of the scheme of the political heaven.
Basrah Sanjaq Society. —The Basrah Sanjaq comprises a portion of the marshes
formed by the Euphrates in the effort to carve for itself a southern channel for its
junction with the Shatt-al-‘Arab. The marsh Arabs of this area are nomads who
make a livelihood as fishermen and in the rearing of cattle for dairy produce. They
carry on their occupations peaceably and have given no trouble. For the other
part, the Sanjaq is a settled district, the land along both banks of the river under
rich date plantation owned by landlords, chiefly Arabs, but comprising also some
Jews and Christians. These landlords are men of gentility and pride, occupying
a position of influence and status reminiscent of that of the feudal landlords in
English history, their fallaheen Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. subject to their will, but showing now a spirit of
some independence born in their work in Army Labour Corps at the base. They
are men of little education, but, if ignorant under modern standards, a tolerant
and fair-minded class on the whole. Their sons will, under a sound system of
education, form a. society of Arab squires and business men which will be a factor
of great importance in the political development of this country. This class is
instinct with many of the feelings which are productive of the best English types,
and, led with right understanding, it will form with men of English race a fit
comrade in the march of progress and good government in Iraq. The landlord class
has naturally suffered much in the impressment of labour and of river craft in the
service of the Army, and the rough methods of military exigency have brought
coldness of heart in many men, formerly the friends and admirers of the British.
They have, however, shown themselves reasonable and in the officers of the Civil
Administration they have evidence of a character of official treatment and race
relationship which goes to soften the bluntness of an arnry’s ways. This coldness
of heart will pass away; but it points strongly to the need of careful selection of
British officers for service in this administration. To the best type of English
gentlemen, strong, manly, just, and considerate, the better class will respond in
the same measure as he detests and fears some of the lesser virtues of the “ British
other rank ” and often of the officer of our army of to-day.
Hostility between Shi‘ah and Sunni. —The cultivators of the Sanjaq are for the
most part Shi ah, as are the majority of the people of the town. The most influential
of the landlords are Sunni, the Shaikh of Muhammarah, who owns much property
in this district, a notable exception. He exercises great authority over many of
the Muhaisin tribe who live in the Sanjaq and acknowledge the Shaikh as their
overlord. In the town of Basrah also the leaders of Arab society are Sunni, though
the Shi ah Ulama occupy a position of prominence. The feeling between the two
sects is very strong and it will be an achievement for an impartial rule to weld them
together m affairs temporal for the common good of the whole.