'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [‎226v] (451/501)

4
It is not difficult to demonstrate that effective administration could not be carried out
from beyond the mountain system which separates Anatolia Peninsula that forms most of modern-day Turkey. from Kurdish Irak. For
many months of the yetir the infrequent passes are snowbound. In complete immunity
from any measures of coercion by the I urkish Government, the population could not
be expected to show a docihtv which they have never previously exhibited, and
unmasterable chaos would inevitably supervene. Ihe principle to which I have
alluded, of introducing no drastic change in the political habits of the people, would
be contravened, with results which I must forecast as a menace to the peace both of
Turkey and of the Irak.
Similarly, the economic connections of the Kurdish areas are with the Irak and,
to some extent, through Mosul, with the Syrian ports. In either case, for the northern
areas the commercial centre is Mosul town 5 to the east, Arbil and Knkuk use the
waterway of the ligris direct to Bagdad without reference to Mosul, and Kirkuk is
situated within 50 miles of the Bagdad railhead. Further east, Sulaimani finds in
Irak alone a market for its only valuable export, tobacco, which is conveyed along a
crood road over easy passes to Kirkuk, or by somewhat more difficult routes to Kifn and
Khanakin. Any interference in this trade would spell ruin to the Kurds.
The severance of the economic and industrial ties which bind Kurdish and Arab
Irak might be more immediately disastrous to the former than to the latter. On the
other hand, it must be remembered that individual Arabs or Moslem religious
communities with their headquarters in Arab Irak have acquired proprietary rights in
the Kurdish areas, while Kurdish notables, so long settled in Bagdad or Mosul as to
have become citizens of those towns, derive a part of their income from estates in
Southern Kurdistan. The artificial separation of areas thus closely connected must
result in economic dislocation of the gravest character.
T pass to the strategic aspect of the question. The boundary in this case would in
its south-eastern sector still run along the Jabal Hamrin and would present all the
disadvantages exposed by Lord Curzon. But instead of reaching the Tigris at its
junction with the Lesser Zab, it would presumably turn north and follow the western
limit of the Arbil division, leaving a narrow Arab belt along the left bank of the Tigris.
As far as Kirkuk and Arbil divisions are concerned, no worse demarcation would be
conceived, as they would be cut off from the waterway of the Tigris. From the point
of view of the Irak, the sole line of communication with Mosul would be gravely
threatened by the proximity of the frontier, the course of which would be indefensible.
Farther north, the Mosul plain, with its numerous Christian villages, would be at the
mercy both of the Turks and of predatory bands of Kurds if, as I anticipate, Turkish
administrative control should prove to be a little more than nominal. Still worse would
be the position if Tall Afar and Sinjar were to be ceded, bringing the Turkish frontier
within 20 miles of Mosul town and intercepting the Syrian trade route. So desperate
would be the situation that the Irak Government would be well advised to refuse the
impossible task of holding the Mosul salient.
In considering the wishes of the local populations, I must again revert to the fact
that they are participating in the elections to the Constituent Assembly and by so doing
proclaiming themselves Irakis. Ismet Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. alluded to difficulties experienced by the
British Government in maintaining administration in Southern Kurdistan, but he failed
to mention that in every casr; tribal insurgence has been due to the presence of Kemalist
agents. Small Turkish'bands under guerilla leaders, whose intercepted correspondence
shows them to have been in the closest touch with Angora, had for over a year and a
half before the first Lausanne Conference alternately terrorised and cajoled the Kurdish
chiefs of the mountains. On the northern frontier they met with no success. On the
north-east some disaffected persons who had been outlawed for heinous offences during
the British occupation were won over to their support. While in Sulaimani Sheikh
Mahmud engaged in intrigue with the Turks. But the captured correspondence of the
Turkish irregular leader, Euz Demir, with his principal at Jeziret-ibn-Omar and
Ano-ora, revealed his profound misgivings as to the loyalty of Sheikh Mahmud and of his
other Kurdish coadjutors. He realised unerringly that their assistance was prompted
by no love of the Turks, but by a desire to play one Government off against another to
their personal advantage. When, in the early part of this year, the administration of
Irak was re-established in Rowanduz by British forces, the ejected Turkish bands were
refused passage through tribal areas by tbe Kurds and forced to seek asylum across the
Persian frontier ; while the population, weary of the prolonged disorder caused by their
presence, settled down with thankfulness under the Kurdish kaimakam nominated by
the Irak Government. Except for the kadha in which Sulaimani itself is situated, the
administrative relations of which with the Central Government at Bagdad have, as

'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [‎226v] (451/501)

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'Mosul Question, Lausanne 1922-1923 and after - Papers, despatches, speeches - Hotel de la Mer at Lausanne - Correspondence about oil' [‎226v] (451/501)

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