File 301/1921 'MESOPOTAMIA: INTELLIGENCE REPORTS' [‎280r] (572/586)

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+1ip r ?wk ^ flamn l ar 1 . oi tlle Jazirah are atill, as they were m the time of
oH Qa’ if i sour 3 ce 1 of disturbance in the Mosul Wilayat. In October the
rnr • ‘ k R a , r . a ^®d the village of Kuwait and carried off 1,200 sheep,
i • 11 lie , has been persistently troublesome, has the advantage of
• ^ 0ca ^habur, beyond our frontier, and do not come under the
in a a * i aharn, who is responsible to as for the Shammar tribe. The
old fenaikn Al Asi, Daham’s grand-father, has joined Daham, which should
piove a great accession of strength to the latter.
° rn , / ^2 ST1 ' reports on November 4th the arrival from Diyarbakr of
an , eX , , UI v1s . 1 >J d«er named ‘Adib Effendi. He is of Sulaimani origin. He
staes that there is a movement in Diyaibakr for the expulsion of the Turks,
no, i* 1 Y eW Y esta olishing an independent Kurdistan under British auspices,
the leaders of the movement are of the Bait Jamil Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , of whom the chief
man, Akram Beg, is in Constantinople. Their local heads at Diyarbakr are
hjasun Beg and Qadri Beg. They are in communication with Kharput a^nd
liliiA. Adah Effendi says that they are very anxious 1o get into communication
with us, and he may have been sent to Mosul for this purpose. He believes that
there are three Kurdish Committees in Constantinople, run by the Badr Khans,
(he Cabans, and Akram Beg, respectively, and that the first named is said to be
m favour of lurkish protection, while the other two favour us.
58. S.S.O., Mosul, reports on October 25th:
Rushdi • Effendi of Amadiyah, a member of the family of the Mufti, who
was mixed up in the murders and disturbances in Amadiyah inj the summer of
1919, has come into the A.P.O., Dohuk, for dakhalah and makes the following
statement:
He himself had nothing to do with the murder of the A.P.O. and Gendarme
Officer, but he and his men were present at the Bebadi and Mazurka Gorge fights.
He has been staying in Shernakh for some time paid.
He left Sharnakh about 25th September. He thinks that the late Qaimma-
qam of Jazirat-ibn-‘Umar was discharged because ‘Akif Bey reported, after his
visit to Jazirat~ibn-‘IJmar, that Sultan Bey w T as unable to produce anything-
like the number of Milice troops which he was budgetting for on paper.
The Divisional Commander distributed large numbers of rifles, e.g., 100 to
Haji Sha‘ban Agha and his friends, 100 or more to the Arabs! (probably Bulai-
bil and ‘Abdul Rahman of Tall ‘Afar), but these were all Russian, rifles for
which ammunition is scarce.
Rushdi Effendi thinks that the Turks at present would like to give as much
trouble to the British as they can, but they are not able to do so openly, nor can
they provide military support to the tribes. They are collecting small taxes by
persuasive rather than forceful means.
The Kurds round Shernakh are violently opposed to Mustafa Kamal and
only recognise the Khalifah of Stambul. Rushdi denies that they want a Badr
Khan, with whose family they have a violent feud, and when the Badr Khan
representative visited them last summer, they made a madhbatah to the Turks
protesting against the suggestion of the appointment of a Badr Khan to be
their Governor.
The present feeling of the Goyan is that they want peace and quiet; they
have no intention of coming against the British Government, but, naturally a
savage tribe, they cannot restrain their unruly members from committing out
rages on the weak villages on their borders. The 70 horsemen sent by the
Turks recently were to reconcile the Batwan and Dershau tribes who had quar
relled.
59. The following extracts are taken from the report of the Assistant
Commissioner of Police, Mosul, dated October 15th : —
“ Muhammad ‘Ali Effendi ihn Salih Effendi Kirkukli, arrived from Wir-
anshehr on the 3rd October. He was a Military Clerk, and had resigned be
cause he had received no pay for a considerable time. He gave the following
information:—“ The French attacked the Turks at Jarablus; but after 3 days’
fighting, they were driven back to Aleppo. The Turkish Cavalry entering Bab,
6 hours from Aleppo. The Turks would have continued their advance to
Aleppo, but were being somewhat hard pressed by the French about Marash; be
sides which they were uncertain what was going to happen as a result of the de
fection of Mahmud Bey ibn Ibrahim Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. at Wiranshehr: They therefore
halted at Bab.
The Turks communicated with King Husain by way of Tab sin Bey,* Arab
Governor of Raqqah, telling him that if he would lead an expedition from the
south against the French, they (the Turks) would press on from the north.
But, until he did that, they were not in a position, to risk a further advance.
Mahmud Bey, however, received a severe defeat at the hands of a detach
ment under Lieut.-Colonel Kan'an Bey himself, and Major Hamid Bey Kir
kukli. Both these officers were wounded, the latter seriously, but Mahmud Bey
* Not to be confused with Tahsin Beg al ‘Askari, brother of Ja'far Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , who was O. C-
Gendarmene at Dair.