'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎70v] (145/470)

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Tobacco. —Tobacco is grown on a considerable scale in Hindiyah and Karbala
districts. Only pipe tobacco is grown, the cultivators being ignorant of the art
of producing cigarette tobacco. They are, however, keen to learn, and the intro
duction of a few Persian cultivators with this object would be welcomed.
Agricultural Machinery .—There is undoubtedly a great opening for agricultural
machinery in this country, but there are many initial difficulties. To begin with,
only light machines can be got about in irrigated country. A combined thresher
and winnower would probably be acceptable to the Arab, who is at present entirely
dependent on wind for his winnowing; but it would be almost impossible to take
the machine off the road, and the first essential is, therefore, an area in which the land
on both sides of such roads as exist is under barley or wheat. Secondly, it has to
be remembered that the Arab will look with suspicion on any instrument which
he imagines will give the Government any clue as to the amount of grain which his
land has produced. With a threshing machine moving through the district and
turning out a known number of tons daily, it would be possible to form a much
more accurate estimate of the yield of the area than would be agreeable to the
Arab.
This does not apply to the Tapu owner, who, like Government, is interested
in knowing the true 3 ueld of the land, and it is among this class that agricultural
machinery of this type is most likely to find favour.
A simple form of reaper, drawn by bullocks, such as is in use in the Punjab, is
the type of machine which is most likely to find favour with the tribesman, and it is
to be hoped that the coming year will see their introduction.
Oil Pumps .—There is a considerable demand for oil pumps in parts of the
Division, and the provision of cheap oil, which was arranged during the year, has
been a great boon to pump owners.
Arrangements have also been made for repair of pumps by a specially deputed .
officer of E. & M. Section. 1
A considerable demand exists for pumps, but they must be supplied at a
reasonable figure; hitherto arrangements for their import do not appear to have
materialised.
5. Municipal. The year has seen a marked advance in municipal administra
tion. The chief features of municipal administration in Turkish times were chronic
insolvency and a plethora of useless officials; the latter have been reduced within
reasonable bounds, and every municipality is beginning to accumulate a credit
balance from which works of public utility can be undertaken.
Tlie m( J st urgent of these is the question of sanitation, and here Assistant Political
Officers undoubtedly require guidance as to the best system to be adopted. I would
welcome the appointment of a Sanitary Commissioner, whose duty it would be to
\ isit all municipalities and advise Assistant Political Officers on such questions as
drainage systems, provision of latrines and incinerators, the most effective method
of preventing the spread of disease through the medium of the house-fly and kindred
matters on wdnch Assistant Political Officers’ ideas are necessarily somewhat vague.
6 Judicial— The case work of the Assistant Political Officer falls under three
mam heads criminal, civil and tribal, and cases are disposed of in a varietv of
Cnmma/.—Criminal cases are tried solely by the Assistant Political Officer
who, as a rule, is also the enquiring officer; the system has its advantages thou Mi it
involves extra work on the Assistant Political Officer, and an investigating Inspector
of Police, if an efficient one were obtainable, would be a boon. 1
The reports of Assistant Political Officers on this branch of the administration
are not illuminating; but it would appear that the Division is free from grave crime
except m Hillah, where the Assistant Political Officer reports that highway robberies
were among the commonest form of crime.
Murder was regrettably common, but this crime is generally dealt with under
tribal custom and not as an offence against the State—only in Diwaniyah where an
exceptional amount of lawlessness prevailed, was it found iiecessarv to inflict capita
sentence for three particularly brutal murders. ,y capital
Ctml cSttits.—Civil suits are disposed of in a variety of ways. In all districts
are Shi ah ahms, official or unofficial, to whom a laree nronorHon „f -f
referred either directly by the parties or transferred bv the Assistant Political Offi ^
Curiously, in Karbala, litigants appear to have less the