'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎91v] (187/470)

Other matters connected with agriculture have been discussed under heads
Revenue and Irrigation.
5. Municipalities : I. Musaiyib Municipality .—The Municipality last year
was scarcely solvent month by month, and furthermore was indebted to the Govern
ment to the tune of Rs. 3,000/— on account of a loan. It was imperative to introduce
new taxation to cope with the rising cost of everything, including labour. The
Municipality, for instance, paid its sweepers Rs. 12/8/— a month, which was about
half the current wage, with the result that it was impossible to get whole-time men.
A new house tax of 10 per cent, on the yearly rental was introduced in March
and other small new taxes were imposed in May.
The house tax assessment had, of course, to be done twice as the members
of the Baladiyah committee and the mukhtars who did the assessment had let
their friends down lightly. The final result is a highly satisfactory revenue from
this source, and nobody has complained of overtaxation.
By the autumn the Municipality was in a position to repay its Rs. 3,000/-
to Government and has a respectable balance in hand.
Expenditure over and above the absolutely essential has been carefully avoided,
in order that the Municipality might have the advantage of a fair balance to expend
when, as we hope, prices and wages fall at the end of the war.
The removal of troops in the early summer made it possible for us to be more
economical than would otherwise be the case.
In the collection of taxes the aim has been to collect directly only such taxes
as can be collected on a “ daftar ” prepared in the office and open to inspection.
This means that the Municipal taxation staff and the evils inseparable from its
activities is reduced to a minimum. Thus taxes on bread-sellers, barbers, grass-
sellers, and other itinerant mongers have been put on iltizam.
We have been able to get rid of the “ Baladiyah chaush,” half sanitary
inspector, half tax collector, and wholly inefficient, dishonest and expensive.
These men have been replaced by a single whole-time sanitary inspector, who has
no other duty but the supervision of sanitation. The people themselves are supposed
to come and pay their taxes in the Municipal office on receipt of notice* This to
some extent avoids the horrors of house-to-house collections.
Below is a statement of receipts showing the result of new taxation :—
Collections :—
January to March (3 months), Rs. 1,684/3/0; average per month, 561/0/0.
April to November (8 months), Rs. 13,743/10/0; average per month,
1,717/15/3.
The members of the committee take little interest in municipal affairs.
II. Mahmudiyah Municipality .—Receipts are just sufficient to cover expenses.
The Rais Baladiyah (Haji Hiyawi) died during the summer. There is no one to
fill his place at present and the Mamur Shu‘bah is performing the duties of Rais.
I had proposed to abolish the municipality, but it is wise to keep it until we see
the effect of the re-opening of the pilgrim traffic. Mahmudiyah is the pilgrims’
first halt out of Baghdad when travelling by road.
6. Judicial —Civil justice. There is only one legally recognised court in the
district, that of the A.P.O. In cases not heard by the A.p!o. technically, the
procedure is to refer the case for advice to the Shi‘ah ‘Alim or the Khatib of the
mosque (Sunni) for advice in shar‘ah cases, or to arbitrators or an official (the A.P.O.’s
assistant) in civil cases. The advice is taken or rejected. If taken it issues as an
order over the A.P.O.’s signature.
A practice was found to exist by which litigants, having stated their case before
the person to whom it was referred, and got his “ advice ” recorded, went off with
the papers without getting the decision confirmed, and nothing more was heard of
them. Steps were taken to prevent this.
Civil cases are numerous but few are important, most of them being debts
dating from Turkish times which the debtors do not deny. Cases involving
Government contractors and the property of women give most trouble as neither
is a suitable class of case to entrust to arbitrators. Government contractors never
seem to keep any accounts, and many cases I should have ordinarily refused to
hear had not important Government works been involved.
The use of the oath is a very common way of settling cases, too common, but
confidence in a man s oath is almost universal. Litigants swear on the tomb of