'Despatch from Civil Commissioner, Mesopotamia, to Secretary of State for India' [‎97v] (19/22)

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meet Naii Beg assured me that all classes in the Iraq are now against us. I ajn
not now concerned with the truth or falsehood of this view, but merety with the fact
that it is held in Syria, and has created there a teelmg untnendl^ to us. ^J 1 b
strongly in favour "of an Amir of the Sharifian House for Mesopotamia and looks
SluirtL obvious selection. He thinks son.e form « J^t've ^bly
essential and dismisses Yasin's objections to it on the ground that Yasm has
scarcely anv acquaintajice with the 'Iraq. His own suggestion would be an assembly
composed partly of elective native members and partly of British a ^ yis ® r s
by us. The idea does not uommend itself as a general proposition but 1 do not know
how Naji Beg would work it out in detail. The object at which he would aim in
constructing a Civil Government was that it should always be the native official w jo
dealt directTy with the native and for the present, always the British official who had
tfie final control, and though I am fully aware that m fact the native, when.it is a
question of official business, prefers to deal direct with the Englishman, nevertheless
it is difficult to see how an indigenous Government can be set up except on the lines
indicated by Naii. He is pleasant and outgoing, a good talker, with excellent
manners. He has the confidence of the British Political Officers m Aleppo who have
seen his work. They say that he and Ihsan are by far the most capable and hard
working men in the district, and thiat if Ja far s administration has been more
successful than any other it is because he has had Naji behind him. Naji never
spares himself, is at his office morning, noon, and night, and shirks no expenditure ot
pains. . _ . „
Before I left Aleppo, I had a long talk with Dr. Altouuyan, whom I knew irom
of old. He is an Armenian doctor of considerable reputation who owns a small
hospital besides having a large private practice. He remained in Aleppo during
the war,, and did useful medical work for the Turks. He laid before me the
Armenian programme for the future of their race. He regarded it as representing
a simple piece of justice and has no doubts as to the possibility of carrying it out.
He looks forward to the provision of a national home for Armenians which may or
may not cover all the wilayats in which Armenians are, or were, to be found. As
a beginning, the district from Cilicia to Sivas would be sufficient, and over this
restricted area he hopes that France wll be induced to take the mandate if America
refuses. Already expectation that the U.S.A. will be responsible for the welfare
of the whole of the Armenian wilayets is fading. In the republic of Van he thinks
it is our duty to leave British troops, or if we cannot do that, to supply the local
Armenian population with plentiful ammunition. He did not seem to have any
recent information from Van. If the French take the mandate up to Sivas they
must send troops into the country, but in any part of Armenia which may fall under
a foreign mandate he believes that foreign troops would be needed only for the first
years, after which time Armenians would be ready to defend their own rights and
preserve order. He reckons that 2,000,000 Armenians now in South Russia and the
Balkans, or refugees elsewhere, would return the moment a foreign mandate is
arranged. These immigrants would alter the balance of population and put the
Armenians in the majority. The government must be entirely in their hands; for
the first decade no Moslem must be allowed office. Armenian must be the official
language and if subsequently Kurds or others are permitted to hold office they must
learn that tongue. The standard of education is much higher among Armenians
than among Kurds, thanks to the instruction which almost all Armenians have
received at Mission schools; they are therefore more fitted already to take charge of
the Administration. If neither France nor the U.S.A. .will accept the
mandate, he would be content with any Christian Power, however feeble—Italy or
Greece—rather than the Turks. The one thing that is excluded is that Armenia
should be placed again under the Ottoman. He laid stress on the point that north
of Diyarbakr the Kurds are mostly Qizil Bash, not Moslems, and that they have
always shown themselves friendly to Armenians. If there must be a Kurdish Pro
vince, let it be a strip from east of Urfah running south of Diyarbakr. He said also
that local Armenians felt very bitterly that we" have not fulfilled our obligations
towards them since the occupation. Refugees who are repatriated to 'Aintab or
Mar'ash find that all their possessions are in the hands of the Turks, and are given
no help towards getting them back. Nor have any steps been taken to punish those
who were chiefly responsible for the massacres, though this point formed a provision
in the treaty. It is interesting, but not encouraging, to compare Dr. Altounvan's
programme with the reports of Ma jor Noel.
I have attempted to oive a picture of the Svria which I saw in 1919. No doubt
it is a very summary outline, for one cannot see much in a fortnight, but I had at