Scott of Iraq.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 October 1922, Page 4

Scott of Iraq.

The difficult political situation which j las arisen in Iraq—the Mesopotamia if the war days—draws attention to the personality of Sir Percy Cox, the British High Commissioner, who has not only had to complain to King Feisul of an affront publicly put upon him on a ceremonial occasion by some Arab agitators but also to take the energetic stop of ordering the arrest of some of these individuals. A slender. scholarly looking man of 58, he knows the Arab as it has been given to few men to know him, for most of hi: long service has been spent in Arabia and Persia. He is credited- with having added a new word to the English language in that part of the world, for the Arab rendering of his name —“Coekus” —came to stand for a not . unacceptable form of -government in the days immediately succeeding the war. An Essex man, Sir Percy Cox, who has been High Commissioner of “Mespot" since 1920, after passing through Sandhurst joined the Army in 1884 and served with the 2nd Cnmcroiiians until 1889.- A year later lie entered the Indian Political Department, which has provided the Empire with so many distinguished administrators and diplomats. For his work in that Departmnet, under which he has held many important offices, honours have been showered upon him thick and fast—K.C.l.E. in 1911; K.C.S.I. in 1915; G.C.I.E. in 1917; K.C.M.G. in 1920, and G.C.M.G. in January, 1922. It is an imposing list of rewards, and it represents a long period of highly valuable service, rendered often under conditions of the most extreme difficulty. As British Minister at Teheran it fell to the lot of Sir Percy Cox to negotiate the Anglo-Persian Treaty, while during the Mesopotamia campaign he had, ns Political Officer with tiie British forces, to create a temporary civil administration in place of the vanished Turkish executive. Not a “showy” man in any sense of the word, his personality is not the sort that impresses itself upon you 'orcihlv at the first moment of meeting him. Bather the impression lie gives is one of shyness, of scholarly aloof-1 ness from the sterner and more practical affairs of life; blit there is a strong will behind that student face, and the quiet, rather tired-looking eyes can, upon occasion, take oil an expression of great firmness . He is a listener rather than a talker, a man of almost untiring patience; and it was this quality, together with bis obvious readiness to hear all sides ■and explore to its uttermost depths any question at issue, which so greatly ■.recommended him to the Arab community in the troublous days i ill mediately succeeding the Great War. Whatever the merits of the present dispute nmv he, one may feel very sure that Cox, according to his lights, is doing his best for that Britain which he has so long and honourably served l Hi one of the most difficult admiuistra- ' live spheres in the whole of our farflung Empire.