الملف ٣٠١\١٩٢١ "بلاد الرافدين: تقارير استخباراتية" [و‎‎٢‎٧‎٥] (٥٨٦/٥٦٢)

Formation of the Provisional Government.
!• Th® High Commissioner reached Baghdad on October 11th. The
military position at that time and during the days in which the provisional
Government was being constituted was roughly as follows: —
(1) On the lower Euphrates the column from Nasiriyah was within
six miles of Samawah and the town was relieved on October
14th. Lower down the line the tribes inhabiting the edges of
the Hammar Lake continued to make desultory attacks on the
block-houses protecting the Basrah-Nasiiriyah line. The storm
centre was the c alim, Mirza Muhammad, who had originated
the trouble on the Hai, and from Butnijah encouraged the
insurgents to resistence.
(2) In the Hillah district, Tuwairij was occupied on October 12th, and
Karbala submitted unconditionally on the following day.
Kufah was relieved on the 17th. The submission of Najaf
followed automatically, and the hostile tribes withdrew to Abu
Sukhair. The effect of these successes was soon apparent in the
unconditional surrender of leading insurgents.
(3) Hit had been re-occupied on October 4th, but Nigris al Qa‘ud, the
hostile Dulaim Shaikh, maintained at Hadithah a menacing
attitude.
(4) On the Diyalah- the conference with tribal leaders on September
20th, had resulted in a number of submissions, but the Bani
Tamim did not come in till October 24th, and even then the
control was by no means’ complete. The terms which had been
accepted by the tribes were not adhered to.
(5) Though conditions were improving in the Kifri district there was
still a considerable amount of lawlessness, and the Hilo Chiefs,
and others responsible for the murder of Captain Salmon, had
not been brought to book.
(6) In Sulaimani, where peace had hitherto been preserved, a section
of the Hamawand raided to within six miles of the town towards
the end of October.
(7) In Mosul Wilayat the intrigues of the Turkish Qaimmaqam of
Jazirat ibn ‘Umar kept the tribes restless. The agitation cul
minated in a raid by the Albu Hamad and others on the Sharqat
road in which the well-known Arab Nationalist, Sharif Effendi
Faruqi, met with his death. He had been some time in Mosul
and was returning to Egypt.
2. Minor disorders such as those which persisted north and east of Bagh
dad were not, however, of great significance. The salient feature of the
period immediately after the High Commissioner s arrival was the rapid
success of our arms on the middle Euphrates. The fall of Kufah and tie
submission of Karbala and Najaf sealed the fate of the tribal rising and pro
foundly discredited the programme of the extremists, while it gave encourage
ment to those who had moderate views and were prepared to co-operate with
the High Commissioner in establishing a National Government.-
3 Outside the areas of disturbance public opinion was far from uniform.
In the greater part of the Basrah Wilayat there was no enthusiasm for an
\rab Government. The merchants and people of Basrah City, who had
grown rich under the British Administrtion, did not evince a desire for any
material change On the Tigris the tribal lessees of Government estates had
tound in securitv of tenure and immunity from the rapacity of native officials,
advantages which went far to reconcile them to the regular payment of taxes.
Some of the Shaikhs had lent a favourable ear to Nationalist propaganda,
hoping thereby to throw off all authority but they had been slow k> nywe
and the sight of British reinforcements had acted as a timely restraint.
Before the Hi°h Commissioner’s arrival the effervescence had subsided and tie
found a general anxiety as to the results of replacing the British by a national
administration, which was somewhat allayed by his assurances that Arab
officials would not be left without British guidance.
But in Baghdad and Mosul there was a strong desire for the immediate
establishment of national institutions. Though the soberer members of the
community were convinced of the error committed by the extremists In
rousing rebellion, and realised that British help and advice were essential to
found and <mide the new State, there yet existed an undercurrent of sympathy