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File 5655/1918 Pt 2 'Mesopotamia: Refugee Camp at Baqubah (1920 – papers)' [274r] (556/946)
The record is made up of 1 volume (464 folios). It was created in 27 Dec 1919-30 Dec 1920. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: 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. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
dispossessed of rights which they and their fathers have enjoyed
for centurieSj that they have always been the peaceable and law-
abiding element of the population in the Urumia region, that no
small part of its prosperity has been due to their industry and
that to allow their homes to be broken up, their people to be
massacred, their property taken away from them, and they
themselves expelled by the lawlessness of the Kurds and Turks
at the beginning, and later by the Persians is a course of
action both wrong and unjust and also provocative of further
lawlessness and disorder*
3. That the Christian nations are justified in exerting
their influence to secure the protection of Christians resident
♦
in Persia whether they be Assyrian Christians or converts from
Islam/* The present question, of course, refers only to the
Assyrian Christians, but if their exclusion from Persia should
be acquiesced in, would not the question be sure to rise
again in the case of Moslem converts to Christianity, and if
it would be right for Great Britain to object to their
expulsion or punishment as Christians, is it not equally right
for it to speak in behalf of these poor outraged Assyrians?
Great Britain has not hesitated in the past to speak far more
emphatically than it would be necessary to speak now in the
case of Persia and the Assyrians. In 1853 the Earl of Clsrendcn
Minister for Foreign Affairs, wrote to Lord Stratford de
Redcliffe, the British Ambassador at Constantinople: "The
Christian Powers, who are making gigantic efforts and submittirg
to enormous sacrifices to save the Turkish Empire from ruin and
destruction, cannot permit the continuance of a law in Turkey
which is not only a standing insult to them, buta source of
cruel persecution to their co-religionists, which they never
can consent to perpetuate by the successes of their fleets
and armies. They are entitled to demand, and Her Majesty’s
government do distinctly demand, that no punishment whatever
shall attach to the Mohammedan who becomes a Christian".
Some years earlier the Earl of Aberdeen had taken same
About this item
- Content
This volume contains correspondence, memoranda, reports, telegrams and minutes. It mainly covers conversations between British and French officials regarding the Christian (mostly Assyrian and Armenian) refugees in the refugee camp at Baqubah [also written Ba’qubah, Ba’quba and Baquba] in Mesopotamia [approximately corresponding to present-day Iraq], and their possible repatriation.
Related matters of discussion include the following: the health of the refugees; background; labour capacity; expenses and payments of the refugee camp; administration of the camp and its economic challenges; transportation for repatriation. Included in the correspondence are letters from Surma Khanin D’Mar Shimun describing the situation of the camp and asking for changes to the camp, and for the return of the Assyrians and Armenians. In addition, there are some inquiries received by British officials from Christian Assyrians. Also mentioned are the following: the ‘Christian Army of Revenge’, French propaganda among the Assyrians, Assyrio-Chaldean [Assyro-Chaldeans] refugees in Russia, and the American Mission.
In addition, the volume includes the following:
- Details of the numbers of Armenian refugees in the camp at Baqubah on 7 December 1919 (f 462)
- Memoranda on the Armenian refugees present in the camp 1919 (ff 436-459)
- Notes on the Assyrian refugees in the camp, dated July 1920 (ff 199-210)
- List of the number of Armenians in the camp (ff 104-105)
- A memorandum on the Assyrian and Armenian refugees in Mesopotamia (ff 95-97)
- A map showing a ‘Proposed Nestorian Enclave’ (f 466).
The principal correspondents are: Civil Commissioner, Baghdad; British High Commission, Constantinople [Istanbul]; British Embassy in Washington; British Consulate, Tabriz; War Office; Lord Curzon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, British Delegation, Paris; officials at the refugee camp at Baqubah; French Embassy, London; Board of Foreign Mission of the Presbyterian Church in the United States; the Mar Shimun family.
The volume includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (464 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume’s contents are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.
The subject 5655 (Mesopotamia) consists of 3 volumes, IOR/L/PS/10/773-775. The volumes are divided into 4 parts, with part 1 comprising the first volume, part 2 comprising the second volume, and parts 3-4 comprising the third volume.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 468; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 197-462; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.
- Written in
- English and French in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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File 5655/1918 Pt 2 'Mesopotamia: Refugee Camp at Baqubah (1920 – papers)' [274r] (556/946), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/774, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100184391542.0x0000a9> [accessed 12 June 2026]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/10/774
- Title
- File 5655/1918 Pt 2 'Mesopotamia: Refugee Camp at Baqubah (1920 – papers)'
- Pages
- 272r:276v
- Author
- Speer, Robert Elliott
- Copyright
- ©Presbyterian Church (USA), a Corporation
- Usage terms
- Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licence