MESOPOTAMIA.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 January 1923, Page 4

MESOPOTAMIA.

T)KSPATCH FROM SIR. ITERCIVAL PHILLIPS. “OlttiV OF ENTR WAGaNCE” (London Daily Mail.) MARSEILLES. November 13. Mesopotamia is a millstone hung round the nook of the British taxpayer. and until it is east off, millions of pounds must be sunk yearly in try mu to support a feeble and inefficient A r l> Government. AYe have created a native State there (called official Iraq) and provided it with a cumbrous and costly organisation in which British military and civil elements are intermingled and intended to serve as a prop to the new Government nntil it can stand alone. A dispassionate survey of present, conditions shows that the results so far obtained do nor justify the time and money lavished upon this enterprise. We are spending this veaj', according t° figures secured from British nffieiid sources in Baghdad, £i, 000.000. Of this amount nearly £200.000 is for the maintenance of the British civil administration in Mesopotamia and the remainder for the Military and Ail Forces there. No less than £3.(500.000 is being spent in the country, for the upkeep of troops and the eonstrnetion of new and costly bases. Yet our aim ■is ostensibly only to stabilise Traq Mesopotamia). The outlook is far from encouraging. ' There is an artificial kingdom ruled by an unpopular TCing, Feisal. and a doubtful Ministry, without- the confide nee. of the people and dependent on a native population which is either suspicious or apathetic.

DISTRUST EVERYWHERE. The King does not really trust us or his Ministeis. 'lhe people trust neither King nor Ministers. The outstanding result of two years of so-call-el self-government is an empty treasury and a deficit. The crying need at the moment is an annual loan of at least £1.000,0dd —of course from Great Britain. The national sentiment which the members of our expensive political mission have been trying to awaken in a country where Ilia) emotion lias never before been experienced is manifesting itself chiefly in a scramble for jobs. This, in brief, is the first chapter or the history of Mesopotamian independence. The British, who have, so far. acted as the pillars of this unstable structure, realise the insecurity of its foundations. Their efforts to infuse a vigorous love of country into the detached tribes which form ;he population of Mesopotamia have not succeeded. A fcling of pessimism, which in some eases is tinged with despair, pervades the little community of British advisers.Sir IVrcy Cox. ilie High Cnmtniss'oner. has worked hard to gel the machinery of infernal government running smoothly. He lias had a, difficult and thankless Las!;. Ffe has met with obstruction from the King as well as from the people. The intrigues of factious in Baghdad and the open hos-

tility of tiie pi'.o ini-os have combined to clog the wheels of administration. A hotter feeling bus | revuiled since the signi.ng of the irontv of alliance

with Great Britain (on 0;-l<>I>or Otli hist) by wliifli (Pont J?rii::in promised Mesopotamia financial and military suppoiti and since tli'* energetic su|>pr<*«suui of tlio nnri-Tiritisli agitation which culminated in a public insult to Sir Perry Cox at the palace. The extreme pro-Aral,s among (ho British nffieiuls, however, are too much inclined to re•tavil this era of pence ns a sign that political stability a nil firmiieinl prosperity have begun.

-Ml the blame for the arrested development ol the kingdom i s placed upon the propagandists at the head of the anti-Mmidato movement. To t'o agitation has been ascribed the stagnation ol the revenue, the non-co-opera-tion ol the tribes, and even their resentment- against the enthronement of an imported ruler. tct the new treaty " ill not work miracles. The failure of the Iraq (ALisopotamia) Government is duo to far deeper causes; and it becomes a ques;tinn how mueh longer wo shall he justifiod in contiiiuiiig to he its sponsor at a cost of nearly ,£8,000.000 a year. More than half the population of Mesopotamia sue fanatical Shiahs (a Moslem sect), who are opposed to all forms ol civil power. Even the most ardent pro-Arabs admits t-lmt they must be. “dealt with sternly”; and that is apparently what the British military lorces are in Mesopotamia for. The self-dependent tribes in the desert have as little love for the King at Baghdad ns for taxation in their homes and for military service. They pay taxes only reluctantly, when they pay them at all. The financial crisis this year has been largely due to the Government's inability to collect the revenue from the land and from other sources. Bombing aeroplanes have been used repeatedly as taxgatborers in backward districts. The Arab Ministers admit that they must have an efficient army of their own to extract the national revenue from the pockets of the people. Without conscription this is impossible; with conscription success is doubtful. King Feisal’s army at- present consists of -100 officers and fewer than 4.000 men —the latter for the most part the dregs of Iraq’s population. Notwithdregs of Iraq’s population. Notwithstanding that this army this year is costing £6OO-000 it is wholly incapable of keeping order—much less of helping the Treasury. ARMY OF OFFICIALS.

i Meanwhile we British are seemingly settling down for a long stay in Meso- ; potamia. All possibility of clearing out appears to lie resolutely ignored by the official mind. Both civil and military organisations are busily building up permanent establishments on a scale which would he unjustifiable even in a new British protectorate. Tn factthere are enough officials in Mesopotamia to equip two or three well-gov-erned dependences of the Empire. The High Commissioner, who is a kind of head tutor to the struggling young kingdom, is established in a new residency which has cost the British taxpayer up to date nearly £160,000. He is surrounded by a Cabinet of Civil Service experts to deal with civil and legal questions, external and inter- j nal affairs. Oriental matters, and other j phases of administrative routine. These

secretaries have other secretaries to assist them. . j The cost of this establishment this ; year is £BO,OOO of which half is borne ■ by the Traq Government. There is ' also an Arab Council of Ministers with ' a dual organisation of British advisers . behind it. which is wholly separate from j the British secretariat across the river. ; These secretaries to Arab Ministeis j have in their turn two or three assist- | ants. 1

For each divisional governor in Mesopotamia there is a. British adviser. Ihe .Arab army has British advisers, and so have the police and all the departments and sub-depmrtments of the Government. The country is full of advisors. Never was advice so costly or so unprofitable. for the sound opinions proffered by the British experts, all of whom take their duties very seriously, cannot he enforced in any wav.

This immature State is jealous of its independence: it listens hut does not neeessarilv follow the course indicated. The military expenditure proceeds merrily. The Air Force is

spending at least £138,000 this year on a new base at Hinaidi, S miles from Baghdad, which will he the most elaborate military cantonment in the Middle Fast. Estimates if expenditure on “improvements and additions” at Hinaidi to he undertaken next year arc already being considered, so they are looking far into the future of an unbroken British occupation of Meso-

potamia. A total of C l ,350.000 is allotted for new works this year. Xew depots arc being built as Basra- and Mosul. Yet the orgy of unauthorised extravagance which made tile administration of Mesopotamia so notorious during and after the war has been largely cheeked. Expenditure is now watched with

a nervous eye there because of the onterv at home. None the loss, public funds are still l>oing poured into tho desert at an alarmingly generous manner. Unless we intend to take over the country and arc prepared to spend millions there, lor years to come, ihe present outlay is simply money thrown a wav. PKR.CIVAL PHILLIPS.