'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎194r] (392/470)

buHd iS estimated at about 4 miles, and is only required to be built to a height of
about 2 feet. With strong east winds the waters from the Umm Nakhlah are
carried to the cultivable land, and actually resulted in considerable damage to
rice this year during the treading in process.
’ ... ? ie cro P s cultivated in this district are wheat, barley,
rice, mi et and mash. In a large portion of the district two crops are sown yearly.
Appendix B. attached to this report, gives the names of all tribes of this
district, and shows the quantities of all crops estimated this year. This will be of
assistance, as it will show at a glance local conditions in regard to agriculture.
Conditions heie are in a state of transition and the fallah Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. is now anxiously
waiting to see what effect the dredging operations will have on his rice lands.
* ® ar ly fhc year, 32 tons of wheat and 41 tons of barley seed were issued on
loan to shaikhs, mostly to those with land in the Shamiyah. This has all been
collected.
Three hundred and two tons of rice seed were issued. This is now being
collected. ®
This distiict is self-supporting and no wlieat and barley seed has been issued
on loan for the next crop.
For various reasons it was not possible to cut one-tenth acre plots of rice fields
this year and so arrive at an average figure of the yield per acre in this district.
It is hoped that this will be done on all crops next year.
5. Municipality : General —al Shuyukh, “ the bazaar of the shaikhs,” is a
famous old Euphrates town, dating back to the “ Muntafiq ” period, when it was
the entrepot for the Beduin and the riverain tribesman. Its fame continued
unchecked until a rival in Khamisiyah sprang up and deprived it of some of those
functions which had given rise to its name. A further blow came when Nasir
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. al Sa dun built the town of Nasiriyah some 20 miles up stream. It is,
however, by no means a decayed or decaying town, occupying as it does so important
a position in the heart of a thickly populated area of the Muntafiq countrv ; and
if its importance has been eclipsed by other more modern towns in Traq, its lesser
importance to-day, as compared with bygone times, is relative rather than actual.
Trade and Commerce .—Suq al Shuyukh is one of those few towns in the occupied
territories to which the war has not brought prosperity. In Turkish times it had
been the river port for one of the desert routes into the interior of Arabia. The
establishment of our blockade crippled this caravan track, besides reducing to a
shadow the up-river re-export trade from which the Suq merchants had derived
much of their wealth. Since that blockade has been removed a revival may be
looked for.
The most important imports into Suq comprise piece goods, sugar, coffee and
tea, while the exports are abas wool, dates, rice, wheat, barley and millet. As
reclamation and irrigation schemes bring vast new areas under cultivation, exports
must in nearly every particular expand. To tap these resources the building of a
railway from Suq to join up with the main line from Basrah, a matter of 15 or
20 miles, would, it seems, be a sound proposition. On the other hand, the present
conservancy scheme in the Hammar Lake at once establishes a deep navigable
waterway down stream. Presuming, however, that the bulk of exports is for
European markets and would be sent northwards to a port on the Levantine coast,
the case for joining up Suq al Shuyukh to the main railway remains.
An interesting experiment was made during the past year to control prices of
foodstuffs in the Baladiyah. A representative meeting of local merchants and
notables was called to inquire into the increased cost of living and the means to
be employed to check soaring prices. Where they were considered unwarrantable,
maximum prices were fixed for a short term, after which they were to be revised in
accordance with the state of supply and demand. The almost immediate results
were:—
(i) The maximum price also became the minimum price.
(ii) For a few days supplies threatened to cease and people began to
make representation to me to remove the control, saying that half a loaf
was better than none.
(hi) One became pestered with innumerable petty cases of evasion.
In the end I was forced to admit defeat and withdraw the scheme, after it had
had only a very hasty trial.