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File 4613/1919 Pt 8 'MESOPOTAMIA: ADMINISTRATION: LAND ACQUISITION OF LAND AT MAGIL: INCIDENCE OF COST' [‎83v] (168/192)

The record is made up of 1 item (93 folios). It was created in 31 Aug 1917-7 Jun 1920. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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(b) This arrangement will save the trouble of:
(i) Assessing the actual loss of crop resulting from acquisition,
(ii) Assessing the amount of crop collected by the owners and repayable
to Government as owner by requisition ; and
(3) Collecting the land revenue.
(c) I may remark that at this stage (i) and (2) are impossible as a clean
sweep has now been made of everything. The owners will not and cannot
reasonably object if we remit the land revenue due from them this year as above
proposed and pay them the assessed value of this land less any cash compensa
tion they may have received already. They may claim interest on the assessed
value of the lands acquired and it will be for consideration whether interest at
say 6 per cent should be granted but, if orders regarding acquisition are issued
without delay and the money paid at once, the question of interest need not
arise. Payment should if possible be made before the end of this calendar
year.
(d) The amount of land revenue to be remitted in perpetuity depends entirely
on the actual areas that it is decided to acquire. The land revenue now payable
is shewn against each folding so far as it has been possible to ascertain it and
amounts to Rs. 5,335 per annum exclusive of areas, such as the Waqf holdings,
on which -|th of the produce is taken annually in kind. The fixed revenue is
assessed on owners not on individual holdings and it will be necessary to work out
the proportions to be struck off the revenue roll on receipt of orders regarding
the area to be acquired. The land revenue Iksessment on the Jubaila tract is
not included in the above.
(5) Future management of the area. — (a) I have proposed above that the
whole'of the area-to be acquired should be registered in the name of the Saniya
or Crown Land Department. No other arrangement is, I think, feasible. If this
is done the Saniya Department should appoint a special Sirkar for the manage
ment of the whole property, of which the military will of course during the period
of the war, have the free and unrestricted use, but I would suggest that the
Officer in charge of the Magil Municipality should be made responsible to the
Saniya Department for the Administration of the area and that trees should not
be cut down or canals blocked without his permission in order that the agricultural
nature of the tract be preserved as far as possible and steps taken to recover the
produce of the trees that remain for the benefit of the Saniya Department. This
Department will probablv find it most convenient to recover the produce by farm
ing it to the highest bidder as in the case of other Saniya properties. With a
little enterprise it should also be possible to plan out a scheme for the develop
ment of the area with an eye to the uses to which it will be put in the future.
(6) The payment of the acquisition price should I think be debited to the
Saniya Department and all revenues accruing thereform credited to it. In course
of time it will become a very valuable property and the Saniya Department will
be able to recover the capital expenditure now involved out of the rental of the
land, which will presumably be taken up for building purposes by the various
Government Departments concerned. For the period of the war it is unneces
sary to raise the question of charging the Military Departments now occupying
the land any rent therefor.
[c) In the case of the larger holdings such as those of the Zuhair and
Mandil families, the Fahad al Sadun family, Agha Jafar and a few others it might
be feasible and possibly desirable to exchange the land acquired for correspond
ing portions of the less manageable Saniyah properties in the Basrah Sanjaq, as
has been proposed above in the case of the Waqf holdings, instead of making
payment in cash. It view of the fact that in the futute the Saniyah Department
will presumably be called upon to manage the extensive areas that will be brought
under cultivation in connection with future irrigation schemes, I think it is very
desirable that it should take the present opportunity of casting off a number of
its less cohesive holdings on the Shatt al Arab, which are a source of more
trouble than profit.
(Sd.) H. S. ]. B. PHILBY,
Basra;
Revenue Commissioner.
IFhe 29th October 1916.

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This item consists of part eight of the subject file 4613/1919 Iraq: Land Tenure. It concerns British land policy in the occupied territories of Mesopotamia [Iraq], particularly in relation to the acquisition of land by the British for military purposes.

The part is largely concerned with the acquisition of land in Magil [Al Ma‘qil]. Included in the correspondence is a copy of a set of enclosures, sent from the Government of India's Army Department to the Secretary of State for India, which features correspondence between the General Officer Commanding, Force D, and the Chief of General Staff, Simla; in addition to correspondence, the enclosures contain a number of appendices comprised of tables of figures relating to rights and land holdings in Magil.

The correspondence discusses the legality of the acquisition under Ottoman law, as well as expenditure matters, such as whether the cost of acquisition should be debited to local revenues or military funds.

Correspondents include the Civil Commissioner in Baghdad (Lieutenant-Colonel Arnold Talbot Wilson) the Viceroy of India (Frederic John Napier Thesiger, or Lord Chelmsford), and various officials of the Foreign Office, the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , the War Office, and the Treasury.

Included with the part is a plan of land at Magil and a plan of a proposed site generating station in Basra.

The French language material consists of one enclosure to an item of correspondence.

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1 item (93 folios)
Written in
English and French in Latin script
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File 4613/1919 Pt 8 'MESOPOTAMIA: ADMINISTRATION: LAND ACQUISITION OF LAND AT MAGIL: INCIDENCE OF COST' [‎83v] (168/192), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/847/8, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100061328857.0x0000b2> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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