Papers on British policy and the Arab movement [‎143r] (289/380)

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Indian Desiderata for Peace Settlement.
(Note by Political Department, India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. .)
PART L—DISPOSAL OF CONQUERED TERRITORIES.
I. Mesopotamia.
1. Indian interest in Mesopotamia is not a thing of yesterday. Very close ties,
mainly religious and commercial, have existed between the two countries for centuries
past. The majority of the Moslems of Mesopotamia are Shiahs, and though the
Shiahs of India are relatively few in number they are influential. There has been
an Indian colony at Kerbela and Nejef for more than a century, and the famous
shrines at those places have always been objects of great devotion, which has found
concrete expression in the Oudh Bequest, made by the King of Oudh in 1825, and
now administered by the Government of India, under which the sum of 5,COOL is
distributed annually for charitable purposes among the faithful. Similarly, the tomb
and mosque of Abdul Qadir at Baghdad are regarded by the Sunnis of India with
great veneration, and that city, though not one of the “ Holy Places,” is considered
by them to possess a high degree of sanctity.
2. The commercial connection of the East India Company with Meso
potamia began in the middle of the 17th century, though a permanent factory An East India Company trading post.
was not established at Basra till 1723. The British agent at Basra acquired Consular
status in 1728. A Resident and Consul was appointed to Baghdad in 1798, and was
raised to the status of Consul-General in 1851. This functionary has steadily grown
in importance, and has normally been recruited from the Political Department of
the Government of India, to whom'he reported directly as well as to His Majesty’s
Ambassador at Constantinople. The importance of his position was further marked
by the maintenance of an escort of Indian troops. The commercial relations of
India with all parrs of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. are too well-known to require description ;
but it may be mentioned that the value of British trade (in which India was largely
interested) passing through Baghdad in the year before the war was over 2,500,000?.
3. Further, it was the Indian Government which first policed the waters of the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , thus, at the cost of much blood and treasure, opening Mesopotamia
to the outer -world, and giving security and free navigation to the shipping of all
nations.
4. It was fitting, then, that a country in wdiich India was thus deeply interested
should be liberated by Indian arms. The expedition which was launched from India
in the autumn of 1914 was provided by the Indian Army, and its operations
w’ere controlled by the Government of India, and though the control was taken
over by the V ar Office early in 191G, it was mainly from India that the great
army which has so highly distinguished itself was recruited, equipped and supplied.
And the campaign, undertaken in the first instance for the defence of India,
soon assumed the character of a campaign of liberation. Turkish misrule in
Mesopotamia, as in other non-Turkish parts of the Ottoman Empire, was notorious.
The Turks, it is true, had conquered a country which had never recovered from the
devastation of Hulagu. But it is potentially one of ihe richest areas in the world, and
their administration, during the three centuries for which they occupied it, did little
or nothing to restore it. its wealth depends upon irrigation ; but the Mongols had
destroyed the principal canals, and, with the exception of the Hindiyah barrage, the
Turks undertook no works of restoration. Agriculture languished, except in those
estates which the Sultan Abdul Hamid acquired, and the proceeds of which were
drained into the privy purse. Education languished, for the Turks provided only
Sunni religious instruction in the public schools, and the Shiah inhabitants withdrew
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