File 4722/1918 Pt 8 'Mesopotamia: Situation' [‎216r] (442/995)

In your issue of May 3, you gave a brief survey of the progress made in
providing a framework of civil administration, comprising the establishment
of municipalities and setting up of tribal councils charged with the expansion
of railways, standardization of weights and measures, health service, educa
tion, agriculture, and the maintenance of law and order. We are also told
that a Port 1 rust has been created at Basrah and chambers of commerce formed
at Basrah and Baghdad. Now it would be interesting to ascertain what possible
resemblance this new and, from our point of view, admirable programme bears
to the old national system of government, or non-government, and the question
arises whether we are not going too fast and teaching the people to run before
they can walk.
Eastern peoples as a rule detest efficiency and sanitation, and although
the Arab welcomed us when we were beating the Turk, and incidentally paying
for everything bought in the country at rates far in excess of any prices before
heard of, I doubt if he wishes to be civilized in a hurry, and certainly he resents
excessive control and taxation. If, therefore, the new system is not likely to
be permanently acceptable to the Arab community, or requires an army of
occupation for many years until the people have become civilized and accepted
our form of administration, is the British.taxpaper to bear the cost? A great
many people will think that charity begins at home, and those of us who have
seen the peaceful Arab behind the battlefront, digging up our graves and throw
ing our dead about for the sake of looting their uniforms and boots would
rather see the British taxpayer’s money spent in this country.
Discussing the details of administration, Lord Islington remarks that the
Government of India has lent a staff of its Civil servants, and you, Sir, observe
that Colonel Wilson, the head of the Civil Administration, has been given so
much uncontrolled power that he has attempted to Indianize Mesopotamia. I
am open to correction, but I have been given to understand that there are very
few Indian Civil servants or members of other Indian services left in Meso
potamia, and that the Administration is composed chiefly of amateurs, recruited
from varipus sources, and by men of the Indian subordinate type.
Some time ago advertisements were appearing in the Indian Press asking
for civil, mechanical and electrical engineers and chemists for the Civil
Administration in Mesopotamia; but as India is itself understaffed with this
class of man, and both as regards the Government and the commercial com
munity has to recruit nearly all its technical officers from home, it appeared
exceedingly improbable that applicants with the necessary experience would
be forthcoming.
It therefore follows, if my surmises are correct, that not only are we
attempting far too much in Mesopotamia, but we are doing it with an inferior
.staff. The Civil Commissioner himself, although possessed of inexhaustible
energy, is a political officer with no previous experience of administration,
and, as you correctly pointed out in a leading article dated September 23,
what is required first and foremost in Mesopotamia is an administrator of the
type of the first Lord Cromer. Such a man is, however, exceedingly difficult
to procure in these days; indeed, so great have been our losses duiing the war,
not only through casualties, but because the rising generation has been taken
away from its legitimate studies for a period of five years, that for the every
day work of administration in its various departments the standard has had to
be seriously relaxed both at home and in all parts of the Empire. Sir Valentine
Chirol, in his recent articles on Egypt, pointed out that the British personnel
there had deteriorated in efficiency, in industry, and in manners, and if that
is the case in Egypt what hope have we of obtaining the best type of man in
Mesopotamia ?
It is, I submit, of little practical value at this stage to consider why -we
went to Mesopotamia, or why w T e remain there, because it is obvious that we
uannot now evacuate the country, or even retire to the port of Basra and
surrounding territory.
Our greatest expense is in the maintenance of the Army, and that could
probably be reduced if we abandoned the idea of bringing the whole of Meso
potamia simultaneously under rigid control, with a European political or
district officer in every village. That, indeed, is administering the country
•on the lines of British India, whereas we should adopt some such system of
control as is used in the great Indian native States. There we have a poli
tical resident in each State, who exercises a general control but does not inter
fere in detail . Under those conditions it should be sufficient.to have European
officers and garrisons at the very few towns of importance, and we should,
of course, have to guard and maintain the lines of communication by river
;and rail, but the remainder of Mesopotamia would, at all events
for the present, be left to wcrk out its own salvation by degrees
.and by its own people. In that case there would be no such incidents
ns the murder of British officers at Tel-Afar and consequent punitive
•expeditions; the tribes would confine their energies to killing each other as
they have done for hundreds of years past, and they would be better and
•quieter if left alone. The administration under the mandate would lose a
certain amount of revenue but would gain by a reduction in military expendi
ture, whilst by degrees and all in good time civilization as we know it would
spread throughout the country.