ملف ٧٠٥/١٩١٦ الجزء ٢ "انتفاضة عربية: التقارير العربية؛ تقارير السير م. سايكس" [و‎‎٢‎٢] (٤٥٠/٤١)

formed at Bagdad and is at Hillah. XVIIIth Army Corps cavalry regiment, composed of
45th, 51st, and 52nd squadrons, was the only cavalry on the Tigris line.
Jewish casualty, quoting a Jewish soldier, states that on the 30th November two
battalions 56th Regiment were on the Euphrates line. No evidence as yet to support
^ansfer of infantry from the Euphrates to the Tigris since that date, bat this inde
pendent testimony of (?) presence 56th Regiment Iraq is noteworthy. Consider
presence at Hillah of three battalions Turks to be probable, in addition to two battalions
locals from Bagdad. These three Turkish battalions may compose new regiment and
may be three battalions 26th Regiment.
Pe 7 'sia. —Kennion reports from Sultanabad, 28th, 1,000 Turks with two guns left
Bijar for Sinneh on the 22 nd December, and that there are indications (?) regarding
Turkish withdrawal near Hamadan and concentration Asadabad.
He further telegraphed on the 1 st January as follows :—
Tigris Line. —Reliable information has been received that the Turks in Mesopotamia
have been ordered to economise ammunition, and to return empty cartridge- and shell-
cases to Ordnance.
General. —A message was issued by the Sultan of Turkey to the Turkish troops, m
which he stated that, though confident in certain victory, the Turks and Central Powers
had imposed the discussion of peace terms for the avoidance of further bloodshed.
Ismail Bey.
Sir P. Cox telegraphed on the 31st December that Ismad Bey the son of the
late Ibrahim Pasha, hereditary chief of the Milli Kurds had reached Basra, having
escaped from Damascus where he had been imprisoned by the Turks. He had been
given a warm reception at Basra. He stated that he was anxious to bring over 150
of his fighting men to take service with us. He had been in command of irregular
troops, and Sir P. Cox points out that, apart from possible employment in that way
he should be invaluable for intelligence purposes. Ismail had reported that he had
stayed with Ibn Shaalan [? who wasj endeavouring to become reconciled with Fahad
Ibn Hadhdhal.
PART III.
MISCELLANEOUS.
British Prisoners.
An agent reports that, on the 8 th November, fifty British prisoneis from Sinaij,
who had fallen sick, arrived at Aleppo from Beirut, having previously been at Damascus.
When ordered to leave the lorries which had brought them, they presented a pitiful
spectacle. Their clothes were in a lamentable state—chests bare, uniforms tom, and
one foot dragging after the other. One of them asked a bystander for a cigarette, and
was offered T box : a guard snatched the box and, cursing him m Turkish, threw it
away. They were all sick from dysentery, brought on by exposure.
Ottoman Subjects in Manchester.
The following comes from a well-informed source •
As you are no doubt aware we have still many Ottoman subjects in Manchester
and it is common property in Cottonopolis how quickly and apparently easily rese
people receive information respecting internal conditions in enemy countries particular y
Turkey. I heard yesterday that a Turk whose offices are m Beaver Street, Manchester,
told a cotton salesman that the reason why Germany was so anxious to obtain peace
was not because of so-called surface victories but because the mtemal_conditions m the
Near East were now reaching a climax, and so bad were things in mi key that a
revolution was imminent, and in order to avert the catastrophe the Turkish Mims er
had told the German Government that unless peace could be q^ lckl J brought about
they themselves would have to throw up the sponge. I give you the above information
just as it was related to me.
C