Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎57v] (114/290)

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recommended the appointment of a High Commissioner, winch had
always been contemplated, and had suggested that, if possible, bn
Percy Cox should return to Mesopotamia in that capacity at the
end of the hot weather. He had. proposed to form four prov inces
or five, if Kurdistan were to be included—each under a Commissioner.
As a concession to native aspirations he had recommended the forma
tion of provincial councils and the possible appointment of Arab
governors in certain of the large towns.
While the bulk of his officers had concurred in his draft
proposals, some criticisms and suggestions of real substance had been
offered. Colonel Howell had recommended that Iraq, exclusive of
Mosul, should be divided into five provinces instead of three ; the con
sensus of opinion had been against the appointment of Arab governors;
and a few other suggestions had been made, such as the appointment
of native ministers and native assistant political officers. It remained
for Colonel Wilson to put forward his final plans for the decision of
the Conference.
Colonel Wilson explained that his final proposals were embodied
in his letter of the 6 th April to 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. .
He said that he concurred in Colonel Howell’s suggested
subdivision of Iraq proper, exclusive of Mosul, into five provinces
instead of three..
With regard to the Mosul vilayet and Kurdistan he asked for
the guidance of the Conference.
Replying to questions by the Chairman, he explained that the
area for which an administrative framework would eventually be
required must depend upon the decisions of the Peace Conference.
There were three alternative boundaries. Firstly, the existing
boundary of the old Mosul vilayet; secondly, that proposed by the
British peace delegation, which ran along the watershed The boundary between adjacent drainage basins. between
Lake Van and the Tigris, excluding Bashkala; and, thirdly, that
which he understood the Americans would propose in the event of
their accepting a mandate for Armenia, which would involve a
considerable extension to the north.
The population of the old Mosul vilayet, beyond which no
administrative measures were proposed at present, fell naturally into
three divisions. First there was a purely Kurdish strip along the
Persian frontier; population about 150,000. The Kurds of this area
were almost indistinguishable from the Persian Kurds over the
frontier. Second, a strip running through Kifri, Kirkuk, Altun
Keupri, and Erbil; population from 250,000 to 300,000. Here the
inhabitants were mostly settled Kurds who had little affinity with
their neighbours except in language. Politically, they were putty in
the hands of the Mosul landlords.
Third, the remainder of the Mosul vilayet; population not
more than 100 , 000 . All of these were Arabs, the majority of whom
were sedentary. The small percentage of nomad Arabs was negligible
from a political point of view.
Mosul town itself was two-thirds Arab. The remaining third
was composed of Kurds, Christians, and nondescripts, no one class
predominating, though there were a few influential Kurdish families
There were, in his opinion, two alternative methods of dealing
with this area.
One was to make it into an autonomous Kurdistan with its
capital at Mosul. This would gratify Kurdish sentiment, and might
result in the formation of a vigorous and semi-independent State^ in
which Kurds would outnumber Arabs. On the other hand it would
not suit the people of Mosul itself, who had contemplated an Arab
and not a Kurdish administration when they asked that Mosul
should form an independent vilayet.
The second alternative was to form a Mosul province as a part
of Mesopotamia, leaving'a fringe of autonomous Kurdish States
round its borders. Among such States might be Suleimaniyeh