Iraq

`IRAQ. The modern independent Arab Kingdom of 'Iraq was formed after the World War out of the former Turkish vilayets of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. It includes an area of over 140,000 sq.m. with a population according to the census of 1920 of 2,849, 282. Of this number 1,146,685 were Sunni Mohammedans, 1,494,015 Shi'ah Mohammedans, 87,488 Jews, 78,792 Christians and 43,302 of other religions. The capital is Baghdad, pop. 1920, 145,000. Basra, the chief port, 7o m. up the Shatt el Arab from the Persian Gulf, has about 5o,000 inhabitants. The region em braces not only the valley of Mesopotamia but also an important desert corridor stretching westwards to the boundaries of Trans jordan. 'Iraq is bounded on the north by Turkey, on the west by Syria and Transjordan, on the south-west and south by Nejd and Kuweit and on the east by Persia. Owing to the nature of the country, the difficulties of water rights and raiding proclivities of the desert tribes the western and southern boundaries are by no means clearly defined. Cotton here is an irrigation crop. Before 1921 none was exported. No spectacular development has taken place, but a steady, healthy progress is shown. The whole of the cotton passes through the hands of the British Cotton Growing Association, who possess the only ginnery. The 1926 crop was 3,500 bales, of the value of £77,000. (For physical and economic geography see MESOPOTAMIA.) Until she acquired full sovereignty on Oct. 4, 1932, 'Iraq was mandated to the British Empire.

The terms of the mandate were never formally laid down by the League of Nations, but the relations between Great Britain and 'Iraq were defined in terms of a treaty concluded on Oct. 1o, 1922, originally for a period of 20 years. This, however, was modified by a protocol dated April 3o, 1923, in which it was agreed that the treaty should terminate upon 'Iraq being ad mitted to membership of the League of Nations and in any case not later than four years from the date of the ratification of peace with Turkey, when it was contemplated that the parties would conclude a fresh treaty for the regulation of their future relations. On Sept. 24, 1924, the League of Nations accepted this instrument as properly fulfilling the provisions of Art. 22 of the Covenant. By a further treaty ratified on March 3o, 1926, and resulting from the decision of the League on the Mosul ques tion, the period was again altered to 25 years (from Dec. 16, 1925), unless 'Iraq should previously be admitted to the League of Nations. She was, in fact, admitted on Oct. 4, 1932.

The 'Iraq Government is a limited monarchy on the Egyptian model, with a king, a senate of 20 nominated members and a lower house of 88 deputies. The country is divided into three vilayets (provinces) comprising in all 14 liwas (divisions), the administration being represented in each liwa by a Mutessarif, who is assisted by a British official with advisory powers. The liwas are : Mosul Vilayet: Mosul, Arbil, Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah; Baghdad Vilayet: Baghdad, Karbala, Diyala, Kut, Diwaniyah, Hillah and Dulaim ; Basrah Vilayet: Basrah, Amara and Muntafik.

Nationalist Movement.

During the years from 1911 to the outbreak of the World War the Ottoman regime in the dis tant vilayets of Turkish Arabia showed marked deterioration. The last hope that any efficient administrative system might be established in Mesopotamia vanished with the fall in I 91I of Nazim Pasha, an energetic man of singular integrity, who had set himself to the intricate task before him with all the rude strength of a Turkish soldier of the old order. The Italian and Balkan wars had weakened the central Government, while in the Arab provinces in particular the disappointment of hopes born of the constitution of 1908 was leading to a recrudescence of racial aspirations. Damascus and Beirut had long been centres of nationalist movements, and by the end of 1913, the secret society called the Ahd (the League) had extended its activities also to the three Mesopotamian vilayets.

The Mesopotamian Campaign.

The declaration of war was followed on Oct. 31, 1914, by a proclamation by the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf to local Arab rulers explaining that Turkey had entered the war only at the instigation of Germany and promising the chiefs who had enjoyed the protection of Great Britain that no act of that country should threaten their liberty or their religion. With these assurances they were satis fied. Before military operations had begun, Sir Percy Cox, whose efforts as British Resident during the previous decade had con solidated the British position on the Gulf, joined the force con centrated at Bahrein as chief political officer and on Nov. 6 when

the British took Fao Fort and made their first landing on Turkish soil, he issued a proclamation in similar terms to the Arabs of Turkish Arabia. At this stage a determined attempt was made by the Ottoman Government to arouse Muslim fanaticism by the preaching of a Jihad, but it met with no response from the tribes men and by Nov. 21 the Turks had abandoned Basrah, the British position on the Shatt-el-Arab was established and the valuable refinery of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company at Abadan rendered secure. On Nov. 22 British troops entered Basrah and, in the name of the general officer commanding in chief, Sir Percy Cox published a third proclamation assuring the inhabitants that Turkish rule was dead and that Great Britain came as their good friend and protector. The British arrival in Basrah was in fact greeted with acclamation by the terror-stricken populace and civil administration was at once inaugurated by the chief political offi cer under the orders of the G.O.C. In the same way, as success followed success, a large measure of civil law and order was grad ually established close in the wake of the army.

The advance from Basrah to Baghdad is described under MESOPOTAMIA. A period of grave anxiety preceded the victory of Shu'aiba, on April 12, 1915, when a reverse would in all prob ability have involved the evacuation of 'Iraq by the British expeditionary force. After the retreat from Ctesiphon (Nov. 25, 1915) and the fall of Kut (April 29, 1916), the fate of 'Iraq again hung in the balance, but the vigorous re-organization of the force, now under the command of General Sir Stanley Maude, restored the foundations of victory, and Baghdad was occupied on March II, 1917.

In the proclamation which General Maude issued on the oc cupation of Baghdad a definite promise was given that alien insti tutions should not be imposed, that Arab aspirations should be realized and that on those grounds the collaboration of Arab nobles, elders, and representatives, with British political officials, was essential. A further development of civil administration was made when in July 1917, Sir Percy Cox was appointed civil com missioner. The army and his country suffered great loss in the death from cholera on Nov. 19, 1917, of General Maude, whose distinguished powers as a military leader had earned the respect and admiration of 'Iraqis, but under Lieut.-general Sir W. R. Marshall, the success of British arms continued. Late in Nov. 1917 the northern Euphrates was occupied up to Ramadi, and in March 1918 up to Ana. In the same month, however, a serious incident occurred on the middle Euphrates. The holy towns of Karbala and Najaf were not only racked by internal feuds but both they and the adjacent tribesmen owned the sway of Persian divines to whom the secular interest of 'Iraq counted nothing. The Holy Places thus presented a fertile field for intrigue and when the Government of Occupation showed a determination to check the rapacity of the local headmen at Najaf, a plot, engi neered from without, came to a sudden head with the murder of the newly appointed political officer. Sir Percy Cox was on his way home at the time to attend a conference in London but the situation was handled successfully by his locum tenens Colonel (later Sir Arnold) Wilson and the G.O.C. in chief. Though Najaf was blockaded not a shot was fired, but the pressure exerted resulted in the handing over of the guilty by May 19. A court of specially qualified members condemned 13 of the accused to death, while over i oo were sentenced to transportation for life or shorter periods, but all of these latter were ultimately amnestied.

North-east of Baghdad, progress was hindered by the Russian debacle, but when, at the end of June 1917, the upheaval which was taking place in Russia obliged the Russians to retire, the British force gradually drove the Turks from the vacated posi tions, occupying Khanaqin in Dec. 1917 and Kifri in April 1918. Kirkuk was reached in May and immediately a provisional Gov ernment under a local magnate, Shaikh Mahmud-al-Barzanji, was set up voluntarily in Sulaimaniyah in friendly co-operation with the British. But the exigencies of the Persian situation made it impossible for the general staff to maintain the position effectively and it was not until the final advance took place in Oct. 1918 that the occupation of the whole of the Mosul vilayet was effected.