"تقارير إدارة أقسام ومناطق الأراضي المحتلة في بلاد الرافدين لسنة ١٩١٨. المجلد I" [و‎‎١‎٩‎٠] (٤٧٠/٣٨٤)

Administration Report of Suq al Shuyukh and Hammar
Districts for the Year 1918.
1 A.f°!' tTI ft L AND Tribal.—I n previous administration reports of this district
the attitude oi feuq and Hammar tribes is said to have undergone a marked change
ior the better, consequent upon the success of British arms, the principal events
being the capture of Kut, the completion of the Nasiriyah railway line the fall
of Baghdad, and the removal of Turkish propaganda in the Hai. This change for
the year under review, has been no less marked and to realise fully the progress
that has been made one has to try and picture present-day conditions and compare
them with those existent prior to the outbreak of war, when for many years the
tribes were completely out of control of Government and their own Shaikhs, and
lawless chaos reigned throughout. The tranquillity of the present day is sufficient
testimony to the signal success which has attended the policy of encouraging
tribal responsibility, by backing up Shaikhs capable of controlling their turbulent
units.
Major H. R. P. Dickson, G.I.E., in his report on this district for the year 1917
briefly summarises the outlook of the Suq tribesman as follows :
kC Firstly, no Government means that we retain crops or money, which
woidd otherwise be taken from us in form of revenue. Secondly, we retain
lands from which we have ejected the rightful owners, therefore we have
to pay no mallakiyah (rent) to anyone and have gained good rice lands
for nothing. Thirdly, we exist and are prepared to defend ourselves by
light of our strong arm, which is always a popular form of existence among
savages.”
The position to-day is that, firstly, tribesmen are being made to pay revenue
on all crops, and these are date, idhrah (millet), rice, wheat and barley. Secondly,
the claims of Sa‘dun landlords are now being (poked into, and each case is being
settled in amicable compromise. Thirdly, in spite of the fact that the tribes have
not been disarmed and that probably 50 per cent, of each tribe could muster rifles,
law and order prevails. The significance of this latter point should not be lost
sight of, especially when it is remembered—and the tribesman is keenly alive to
this fact—that Military garrisons have been considerably reduced and that all
Military posts in this district have been relieved by Shabanahs.
To turn to the land problems, with the conclusion of the Great War Suq troubles
are not yet over. From the date when an Assistant Political Officer first took up
his abode here, the agrarian problem of the Muntafiq has been perpetually shelved.
It is only natural, therefore, that at this stage the burning question of the moment
should now come to the fore with greater force and intensity. Both sides realise
fully the issue at stake. They can both see that under a stable Government, and
with the rapid development of the country, land must surely increase in value
even beyone their wildest dreams in the past. If we intend to follow custom as
to the division of crops between landlord, tenant, and cultivator, then we must
set about deciding who is the landlord. When once the decisive step is taken
and Government declares that it intends to enforce the payment of dues to the
rightful owners, the tribes will realise that it is an order from Government and will
bow to the inevitable.
With the collection of revenue for the first time on all crops, Sa‘dun landlords
are attracted from all quarters, and all and sundry with the slightest pretention,
no matter how flimsy, to any land are now clamouring for rent. The strength
of these claims may be gauged when it is understood that such claimants have
probably never seen their alleged possessions, wdiile it is quite certain that,
within the living memory of those in possession, they have never collected rents.
The work entailed of investigating claims would keep an Assistant Political
Officer fully employed, for there are few Sa‘dun cases which are not disputed. In
the first place, there are several claimants to the same estate. Secondly, acreage
and donums are completely at variance. Thirdly, the boundaries on the sanads