Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎55v] (110/290)

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APPENDIX.
Mesopotamia : Civil A dininistration.
1. THE question of maintaining the personnel of the civil administration of
Mesopotamia during the period of transition that must necessarily elapse before
permanent administrative arrangements can be made calls for early consideration.
The departments concerned fall into two categories, viz. (1) those forming part of
the civil administration under the control of the Civil Commissioner, and (2) those
forming part of the military administration, under direct military control, but
discharging functions of a “quasi-civil ” character (c.^., Local Resources,
Railways, Inland Water Transport, &c.). The personnel of the “civil
departments consists largely of Army officers, temporary . or permanent,
lent for the purpose by the military authorities; that of the “quasi-civil
departments is, of course, exclusively military. So long as hostilities were in
progress, the present system worked smoothly enough. But demobilisation is now
in full swing. Officers are naturally anxious to obtain leave to Europe and to make
early arrangements for their return to civil life. The difficulty of retaining the;r
ser\ices in Mesopotamia, unless some prospect of permanent employment can be
held out to them, will be readily understood. On the other hand, we cannot afford
to risk a breakdown of the whole administrative system, such as might well result
from a wholesale depletion of the existing staff.
2 . Something has already been done to meet the emergenev. The Civil Com
missioner recommended on the 22nd December, 1918, with the full approval of the
General Officer Commanding, that he should “be authorised bv His Majesty’s
Government, as the temporary head of the civil administration, with the assistance
of my Financial Secretary and in consultation with the General Officer Commanding-
in-Chief, to conclude contracts and settle terms of employment with such officers
and men as are required to run the [civil and quasi-civil] departments after
demobilisation." Colonel Wilson's recommendation was approved by His Majesty’^
Government (21th January 1919), subject to the condition—imposed at the desire
of the Foreign Office—that the period of the proposed contracts should not exceed
one year unless absolutely necessary.
3. The War Office are not satisfied, however, that existing arrangements are
adequate, at any rate as regards the “ quasi-civil ” departments, i.e., those still
under military control, but likely to be transferred hereafter to the civil side. They
point out (letter of 22nd February 1919) that “a renewal of the short contract
system, whether for survey, agricultural, inland water transport, or other work
which will eventually come under civil administration, will not be sufficiently
successful to prevent the permanent loss of a great manv most able administrators
and officials now serving in a military capacity. All these officers have an intense
desire to come home on leave and, so far as can be judged from information given
bv the General Officer Commanding, Mesopotamia, thev are unwilling to enter into
anv undertaking to return except on terms which assure them a permanent career
with adequate remuneration, and in most cases they do not regard the renewal of
a short contract as giving sufficient inducement.” The War Office accordinslv
suggest that it might be possible, without preiudice to future decisions as to the
political status of the occupied territories. “ to act on the assumption that the
administration of Mesopotamia would be under British control in the ca«e of
these valuable officers”; and thev urge that an effort should be made to induce
such officers and other ranks to return to the country after leave
(i.) by an undertaking to give them a free return passage;
(ij.) bv offering them sufficiently advantageous conditions of service, even if
these conditions can only be regarded as temporary; and
(iii.) by giving them, as far as possible, some more'definite indications of
policy, e.g., m such questions as the future of the Survey Department.
4. It mav here be noted that the transfer of the Departments of IrrmaLon and
Agriculture from die military to the civil administration has recently ( 10 th February
1919) been sanctioned bv His Majesty’s Government. But the “quasi civil”
Departments of Local Resources, Inland Water Transport, Port Directorate,