Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎131v] (262/290)

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bodies: A Council of State under Sir Percy Cox, with an Arab
president and eleven members, of whom six were to be British
and five Arabs. The president and all the members were to be
nominated by the High Commissioner. This was to be tlye only
executive body, the second proposed body being a Legislative
Assembly with no executive functions. It was cleai that this would
not be an Arab Government inspired and helped by British advice,
but a British Government infused with Arab elements to a gradually
increasing extent. He took it that this was Colonel Wilson s^
intention. Incidentally we were told that local feeling in favour of
a single Arab ruler, who could only be Abdullah, was growing in
strength, expecially among younger men. There was no room for
Abdullah in the constitution proposed by the Bagdad Committee
for at least two years. Colonel Wilson also mentioned a pro-Turk
party, who were apparently living in a world of their own and still
hoping that Turkish rule would return to Mesopotamia, but that
this section might be disregarded.
On the 1st May Colonel Wilson asked for the provisional
acceptance by His Majesty’s Government of the recommendations of
the Committee which had its entire support. He did not, however,
recommend the appointment of the Council of State until the terms ^
of the mandate were known. Just after this telegram reached
England, the announcement which had eventually been agreed upon
between the Secretary of State for India and himself after con
siderable discussion, was telegraphed out to Bagdad. In this
announcement His Majesty’s Government distinctly promised to
consult the people and to make another attempt to discover
what they really wanted. Meanwhile the mandate for Mesopo
tamia had been given to Great Britain at San Bemo, and
on the 3rd May Colonel Wilson had issued an announcement
of his own which had not been previously submitted to His Majesty’s
Government for approval. Jbis announcement contained the usual
references to the sufferings of Mesopotamia and the great deeds done jy
the British. On the 8th May Colonel Wilson objected to the
announcement which had been telegraphed out to him, and said that
the proposed further consultation of the people would cause trouble.
He asked for authority to publish the provisional constitution
recommended by the Bagdad Committee within seven days.
Following on this came the opinions of the Committee themselves on
the proposed announcement, which they considered would need some
modification if their proposals were accepted. Ihey said that the
first step should be the publication of the terms of tne mandate, and
that a summary of the proposed constitution, approved by His *
Majesty’s Government, should be published either simultaneously
with or after the publication of the mandate. On the 12th May
the Secretary of State for India telegraphed to Colonel Wilson on ♦
the subject of the position of the mandatory Power, and Colonel
Wilson’s reply of the 15th May, which he bid just received, and
would read to the Conference, raised a series of questions of the first
order of importance. He then read Colonel Wilson’s telegram of the
15th May, and said that there were five questions on which a decision
was desired :—
(1.) Did the Conference approve of a provisional constitution
being set up as proposed by the. Bagdad Committee ?
(2.) If so, did they consider that it should take the form which
the Committee recommended ?
(3.) Even if the proposed provisional constitution was regarded
as the best scheme that could be evolved to meet
present requirements, would it not tie our hands when
the time came to elaborate a more elastic and less strictly
controlled form of government ?
(4.) Was the proposed constitution quite fair to the people ?
(5.) How did it fit in with the idea of a mandate, and what
exactly should the terms of the mandate be ?