File 4722/1918 Pt 8 'Mesopotamia: Situation' [‎217r] (444/995)

Saiyid Talib replied: £f Katliir Zain. I’m an Arab and a native of tbe
Iraq. Lxpiam to me your views.”
Said Yusuf Effendi: “No foreigners, no mandate, no interference
from without.
“ And wllat ^ your programme P” as^ed Saiyid Talib.
We haven t made a programme ” said Yusuf Etfendi.
£ Then you are no better than outlaws and thieves,” retorted S. Talib.
,, . °. u cai l i s^ 11 ' U P rebellion without a scheme and you can’t defeat the
British without a programme. I have just seen on Sir Wilson’s table three
teieginms, one from Allenby offering artillery, another from Bombay offering
divisions, another from the Commander-in-Chief in India saying that the
troops on the N A\ . I rentier are at his disposal. You’ll have 70,000 men land-
in §-l n Tu^rah before you know it. Where are your troops and where is your
artilleryf ( an the tribes figdit the British Army? ”
)n this , Saiyid Talib continued, “ Yusuf Effendi clapped his hand>
to ins head and cried out: ‘ Ai, ai! what have I done? ’ You know the dark
red colour of his skm? He pressed his fingers to his head till they left white
x> ai u j i wen ^ 011 an d asked him which of the nobility and the learned of
Baghdad were on his side? but he made no answer and continued to beat his
forehead like a madman. As far as I can make out the people he relies upon
are 1 uad Daftari, Ja far Abu limman and Bushdi Abu Lailah and I don’t
even know who Abu Lailah is. And then of course the Sadr, Saiyid Muham
mad. I said to him that if he wanted me to join him, I must lay down four
conditions. I had written them down in my notebook and I read them to
him :
1. “ The head of the 'Iraq State must be an 'Iraqi, a Sharif of the best
blood and family of the ‘Iraq.
2. A committee must be formed of reputable and honourable men.
•I. The policy of political propaganda and incitement to rebellion to
be dropped at once.
4. "The Ashraf of Baghdad and elsewhere who had not joined Yusuf
Effendi’s party to be invited to take part in the Committee.”
With regard to (2) 8. Talib seems to contemplate the inclusion in it of the
ex-deputies. It is to be charged with the framing of the electoral law but he
suggested that if, as seemed likely, the assembly of an elected body should be
a matter of many months,_owing to the need of preparing registers, it might
be possible to form a constituent assembly, for the initial work of setting up a
constitution, by giving the committee the power to summon representatives
from the provinces, not by election. He added with a percept'ble wink, that
he would undertake that people of the right sort should be summoned, not
merely friends of Yusuf Suwaidi. The right sort may be presumed to be
friends of Saiyid Talib.
It was agreed that Muhammad Sadr should come to see S. Talib this after
noon and if he accepted his conditions matters could go ahead. Otherwise
S. Talib said he would have nothing to do with Yusuf and his associates. But
he warned him that if he persisted in his present course he would bring the
whole country to ruin. Prices would rise in Baghdad (as indeed they are
already doing) and the people would get up as one man and lay the blame at
his door. “ And I advise you ” he added, “ when you walk the streets of
Baghdad to take four men with revolvers with you ”.
Yusuf was greatly alarmed and S. Talib observed: “ I don’t think
he’ll Have a hearty appetite to-day.”
As they went out Yasin Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. was also trembling with fear. “ What’s
the matter”, said S. Talib.
“ The matter ”, he answered, “ I’ve been deceived. I thought Yusuf
Effendi could command unlimited military support from Syria, but now what
will be the consequence of his actions? I’ve a good mind to go off to India ”.
A story loses nothing in S. Talib’s telling but substantially his account
of the interview is probably correct.
He also says that all the young men who are the backbone of the national
ist party here have come to him and put themselves unreservedly into his
hands. I fancy this is an exaggeration though some have come to him.