'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎262r] (526/862)

THE CONSTITUTION
399
College are drawn; other candidates come from the civil secondary
schools. For senior officers there is a Staff College similar to the
British Staff College, and many officers have also been sent to England
or India on courses.
Other ranks are recruited both by voluntary enlistment and con
scription. The latter was finally established in 1936 for all males
between 19 and 25 years of age, the average period of service being
for two years followed by varying periods in the First and Second
Class reserve, up to 20 years liability for military service. Conscrip
tion is not applied as in Europe. The wealthy may buy themselves
off for £50; students are exempt; there is balloting in the annual
themselves, no serious attempt has been made to make the most of
the best fighting material in the country.
Military Administration. The country is divided into three dis
tricts: Northern with headquarters at Mosul, Eastern with head-
and Diwaniya (1). The military school and central establishments
were at Baghdad. Government control is exercised by the Minister of
Defence, who works through a Director-General of Administration
and the Chief of the General Staff, who is the senior officer on the
active list. These three, together with the heads of the principal
Defence Departments, and also certain general and field officers,
form a Defence Council which decides matters of high policy.
Military material, by the terms of the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty, must be
of similar pattern to that used by the British, so that Iraq has been
generally dependent upon Great Britain and India for supplies,
though there is a S.A.A. factory An East India Company trading post. at Baghdad and a rifle factory An East India Company trading post. at
Musaiyib. Likewise foreign military instructors must be British
subjects, and there has always been a small British military mission
in Iraq whose duties are limited to inspection and advice. Both in
peace-time and in the Anglo-Iraqi campaign of 1941 (p. 305) com-
allnvestip classes when, as often, they exceed the number necessary; and the
sn tinif),lti ever-reluctant tribes simply provide a quota. Most recruits are
illiterate but receive elementary instruction in reading, writing, and
arithmetic given in Arabic. The army is essentially an Arab and
exceptRait national army; though many Kurdish officers have distinguished
quarters at Kirkuk, and Southern with headquarters at Baghdad.
Divisional headquarters before 1941 were at Baghdad (2), Kirkuk (1),
petent critics observed that the value of the army’s work depended
on the extent to which the advice of the mission had been sought and
followed.
The most notable weakness of the army is common to the whole