'PAPERS RELATING TO THE MESOPOTAMIAN COMMISSION from SIR E. BARROW'S ROOM' [‎62r] (123/1386)

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ombcLrkad his fores two or three miles up the stre^^n at
Baihas eas^d: Faniyeh. Fo far but little opposition had been
encountered but on the 11th November the Turks made a de
termined attack on our outposts being finally routed with
considerable loss*
On the 15th and 17th November, by which time Lt Genl Fir
A*Barrett with another Brigade of the 6th Bivision had ar
rived in the Fhatt-el-Arab, well contested aubtaults were
made on the new Turkish positions and the enemy having been
driven back with heavy loss in men and materiel was follow~
-ed up by river and road to Basra which was occupied with
out opposition on the 23rd November* On the following day
the troops marched through the city and a suitable procla
mation was read and well received.
The political situation among the Arabji tribes aid at
Basra.Muhammerah and tor/ards Baghdad being on the whole sat
isfaotory the Viceroy reported that the desirability of an
advance on the latter place was under consideration by the
Government of India and the local authorities but on the
27th November the Secretary of State intimated that such a
course seemed to him premature and complicated by grave in
ternational considerations and that any forward movement
should be limited to the occupation of Xuroa> at the junctio 11
of the Tigris and Buphrates # ^hich would give us both prac
tical and moral control of southern Mesopotamia and Persian
Arabistan*
On the 4th December^accordingly,the 6th Division having
been completed by the arrival of its third Brigade and
other details from India, an advance was made on the posi
tion at KUrna which had meantime been reccnnoitored by the
naval force. Both banks of the Tigris were found to be held
in considerable strength but between the 5th and 9th Decern-
ber our troops cons Is ting of some five battalions supported
by ten guns on flats gallantly cleared Hazera and Kuma
after a strenuous resistance,a considerable portion of the