'Kurdistan and the Kurds' [‎45v] (90/122)

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consequences. In Adiaman and Samsat, though the notables disliked the
idea of a British administration out of fear that they would be held
responsible and perhaps brought to justice for their share in the Armenian
atrocities, yet the poorer classes were ready to welcome such an event as
a relief from the injustice and oppression of the existing government;
business was at a standstill, the fluctuations in the value of coin and
paper-money were causing much discontent and many small traders were
already ruined or confronted with bankruptcy in the immediate future.
The most fertile soil for agitation was amongst the lowest classes, who
were taught that the British would disarm them and sternly put down
robbery and brigandage, f The ordinary tribesman, also, a herdsman or a
cultivator by profession, who varied the monotony of a small farmer’s life
by occasional raids on his neighbours or by robbing travellers, showed no
real desire for independence; his horizon was bounded by his farm and his
political outlook did not extend beyond the tribes in his immediate vicinity. /
Consequently, it was no surprise to the British authorities when the news
arrived at the beginning of May that Mahmud had ordered all tribes under
his command to remain quiet, even if provoked, and that he had undertaken
to refer all questions to them before taking any action. /'Thereupon,
with the collapse of Mahmud’s loose confederacy of Kurds, the usual inter
tribal quarrels broke out anew;(the Miran Kurds and ‘Anazah Arabs were
reported to be combining against the Shembi, Milli and Kiki tribes ; the
Dukurlu and Badelli, after a truce of a few weeks’ duration, came to blows ^
again, and the tribes round Derek and elsewhere sank once more into the
labyrinth of local politics and tribal feuds.
(At the end of May the news of the Greek occupation of Smyrna and
rumours about the formation of an independent Armenia served the
purpose of uniting the local leaders of the Committee of Union and
Progress and the Kurdish notables at Malatia. Here the movement for
an independent Kurdistan was strongly encouraged also by the mutesarrif,
a Kurd of the Bedrkhani tribe, v
Meanwhile, in Southern Kurdistan the situation had grown worse,
chiefly owing to the folly of Sheikh Mahmud. Towards the end of
December, 1918, Major Noel left Suleimaniyah and went through the ^
districts to the west and north as far as Rowanduz, introducing every
where the same system of government. Political officers were appointed
at Koi Sanjaq, Rania and Rowanduz ; order was rapidly restored and the
tribes were brought under our influence. They all expressed their readi
ness to accept the rule of Sheikh Mahmud as British representative in
Southern Kurdistan and were apparently eager to join the Kurdish
confederacy.
The district was found to be in an appalling state of desolation after
the passing of successive waves of demoralised Russian and Turkish
soldiers; in Rowanduz only 60 houses were standing out of the 2,000
which had existed before the war. Cultivation in the country had