'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎147v] (299/470)

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convict dhobis, convict bullock drivers, convict syces, &c. It is rarely that their
commanding officers have been given any information as to their pievious history,
and the result is that there is a varied assortment of the choicest blackguards of
the Indian jails, freed from practical^ all surveillance, about whom the Police
know nothing until they happen to land one for crime committed here. Men with
as many as 10 previous convictions have been caught. There seems to be no real
remedy for this state of affairs. The chief obstacle to any purely local registration
and surveillance by the Civil Police (apart from probable objections by commanding
officers) is that the crime records of convicts other than those belonging to Disci
plinary Corps do not appear to be available in this country. I should add that
commanding officers are, as a rule, ready enough to hand over their men for civil
trial, and we have put away one at least for a term of seven years and others for
shorter periods.
(5) Class IV. : Minor Offences against the Person. —There are no cases of offences
coming under this head.
(6) Class V. : Minor Offences against Property. —This class includes, as the
commonest offences, theft of all kinds, cheating, receiving stolen property, and
criminal breach of trust. There is, again, an increase for the class as a whole
amounting to 75 per cent, over last year. In the case of theft of the commonest
kinds, “ receiving,” and cheating, stolen property has risen to 200 per cent.
(Rs. 30,000/- to Rs. 90,000/-) and the percentage of recoveries has fallen from
39 per cent, to 26 per cent. In the case of the two last-named classes, offences under
which are double last year’s figures, much may fairly be attributed to increased
Police activity. Action as regards these last two classes has also been commendably
successful, nearly 80 per cent, of cases investigated having ended in conviction.
The commoner offences of theft have not been so successfully dealt with. I would,
however, repeat here, that there are many factors militating against good statistical
results, not forgetting the probability of better registration, and would urge that
not too much reliance be placed on the figures (themselves by no means absolutely
reliable) in judging Police action.
A class of theft which has occupied a considerable place in the work of the year
is that of pilfering on the river, particularly from Government store ships, barges,
and mahailahs. In the early part of the year I was asked by the I.G.C. to establish
the river patrol of balams to watch for this. There is no doubt that looting does
go on from mahailahs and barges which, after loading from ocean-going ships, fre
quently lie up in the stream for some time waiting to discharge at the wharves.
The booty is easily got away in balams to the left bank and concealed in villages
among the date groves. The patrol put on, of four balams, did a certain amount
of useful work, but could not be expected to be a really efficient blockade, con
sidering the great extent of the port area. Even in its most restricted sense this
includes the stretch of river from Qurmat ‘Ali to Sarraji Creek, a distance of nearly
8 miles. Later in the year an officer on special duty from England reviewed the
arrangements for safeguarding Government stores in the port, and I was again asked
for proposals. These when completed provided for six launches for a motor-boat
patrol and an increased staff of 14 British other ranks and 40 Arab rank and file
and the establishment of a subsidiary river police station at Ma‘qil. The proposals
for launches were negatived by G.H.Q. and modified proposals for an increased
bellam patrol are now before the I.G.C.
The river Police will, I apprehend, be an increasingly important agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. as
time goes on. The river and creeks are so essentially the ordinary means of transit
of goods, and the methods of trade in Basrah and the Sanjaq generally, and of handling
merchandise, lend themselves so readily to every kind of pilfering, theft and swindling,
that there is a very large field open for work in this direction, and expansion must
certainly take place quite apart from Military requirements. Here again the co
operation of Mukhtars must be obtained, and this part of the Sanjaq, particularly
the left bank, must be brought under Police control.
One of the commonest of the lesser forms of crime in the towns is pickpocketting.
Boys who take to this seem quickly to become incorrigible; certainly the mild
sentences of caning usually inflicted are no deterrant whatever. I approached the
Military Governor on the subject of the provision of some sort of special accom
modation in the jail for juvenile offenders, but this was not considered feasible.
It is a pity that so much potential criminality cannot be nipped in the bud.