'Papers relating to transfer of Middle Eastern Affairs to the Colonial Office and creation of a new Department there, 1920-1921, with Cabinet notes of Milner, Montague, Churchill, self, and others' [‎36v] (72/136)

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(2) I am not quite sure what “ Indianisation ” is intended to mean. But I take
it to mean that a direct administration has been set up on the model of India, and even
manned by Indians—that we are, in fact, governing Mesopotamia as though it were an
Indian province. And the argument is that this involves a costly administration,
which involves heavy taxation, which in turn brings in its train the unrest of which
Mesopotamia is now supposed to be the scene. E'rr/o, get rid of Sir A. T. Wilson and
peace anti contentment will reign once more. Now for the facts.
With the progress of our victorious armies the existing Turkish administration
disappeared. Though not a bad system on paper, it was entirely inefficient in
practice. Nevertheless it had given to the dwellers in towns some semblance of
Civilisation. There were law courts, from which there was an appeal to Constantinople ;
and there was an electoral system under which not only rnunicipalites were
worked, but members were sent to the Turkish Parliament. The Iraq was, in
fact, a part—like any other—of the Ottoman Empire. But all this collapsed, because
the higher officials were exclusively Turks and fled, and the minor Arab officiafs—
who either were Turkish in sympathies or were not sure that the Turk would
not return—also disappeared. It was necessary to replace the machinery by some
thing else—for two reasons. First, because we could not give the inhabitants, of
whom we posed as the liberators, a worse administration than they had endured
before. Second, because it would have been impossible to conduct a campaign in a
country given over to chaos—security was necessary on the lines of communications,
and the army had as far as possible to feed itself. I mention these points because, obvious
though they are, they are often forgotten. But to create a new administration there
existed practically no material but what xve brought with us—and that consisted mainly
of British officers from India and Indian subordinates. Every effort has been made to get
officials from Egypt and the Soudan—the Judicial Secretary and the Director of Educa
tion come from the former: but there was no large reserve to draw upon, except in
India. Nevertheless the Turkish system has been maintained in its main features—
except that of inefficiency. It would not be surprising if men, whose administrative
experience had been Indian tended to work to an Indian model and to an Indian
standard—and I am willing to admit that we have gone further in the direction of
efficiency than the Arab State is likely to want to go. But when that admission is made
it must be remembered that it is largely for military purposes that this expensive
administration was created and that this degree of efficiency has been maintained.
The great expansion in the cultivated area, for example, which in turn necessitated an
extension of irrigation, was undertaken at army expense in response to an urgent appeal
from home to make the-army self-supporting. Again, a feature of the present year is
the transfer to the civil administration of expensive departments hitherto organised by
and for the military authorities, such as railways, ports, docks, river navigation.
Departments which exist solely for the benefit df the inhabitants bv no means' attain
the same standard. Education, for example, is notoriously behindhand. Though
Arabic is the language of the schools, and for the first time since the Turkish
conquest the Shiah majority of the population is getting its due share, it has been
impossible to satisfy the demand, because the supply of Arab schoolmasters is wholly
insufficient. 'Technical education in Baghdad is at a-standstill because the military
are occupying the only possible buildings, and the prolonged and persistent efforts of
the Civil Commissioner have failed to dislodge them. Facts like these caused a
Syrian nationalist paper recently to remark in all earnest that the Mesopotamians did
not appreciate the blessings of Turkish rule until they had lost them.
But, it is said, your administration is absurdly costly compared with that of the
Turks because “ it has 450 British executive officers running it, and not a single
“ responsible Mesopotamian. In Turkish days 70 per cent, of the executive civil
“ service was local ” (Mr. T. E. Lawrence, Times, 23rd July). 1 cannot say what
percentage of the total is represented by the 450 British, though I doubt whether it is
as much as 30. But it must be pointed out that the Turks did not employ “a single
responsible Mesopotamian.” The Turkish subordinate executive service too was
almost exclusively Sunni, while the majority of the people are Shiah. It was easier
for a foreign Moslem Power to impose a Sunni domination than for ourselves ; and
the result has been that most of the Sunni employees of the Turks who have remained
or returned, are unemployable, while the Shiahs, who had no training in or
tradition of public life in Turkish times, are not yet generally capable, or are unwilling,
to .come forward to take their places. Where the material has been available it has
been used to th <3 utmost. In the Judicial Department, for example, out of 100 officials
six are British and 82 Arab, and for the first time for centuries justice is being
administered in the Arabic tongue, and the courts are following the law and customs