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Hokitika Guardian, 29 December 1927, Page 2

For some years after the destruction • of the Turkish armies in Syria and Palestine, toward the dlo.se of the Great War, recalls a contemporary, the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates was occupied by British troops. Very strong objections were raised at Home to the policy of maintaining a British garrison there, partly on the ground of expense, partly because of dangerous friction with the Araiis. A way out of this difficulty was found through certain unexpected developments in Syria. When Feisal, the son of the Shereef of Mecca, guMwj and advised by Colonel

Lawrence, had roused the Turks, lie was led to believe that he would receive as reward for his splendid services the crown of Arabia and Syria. But Britain had meantime come to a secret understanding with France which recognised French domination in Syria, and in spite of the vehement protests of Lawrence and other champions of Arab nationalism, Feisal was compelled to withdraw from Damascus. However, to compensate him, and at the same time to relieve Britain of her onerous and dangerous responsibilities in Mesopotamia, “the country of the two rivers” was converted into the kingdom of Iraq, and Feisal was placed upon the throne. In the earlier stages of this transformation it was necessary for Britain to exercise some measure >f protection and control over the new State. For though Feisal, a mail gifted with remarkably keen political instincts. soon reconciled himself to the inevitable, liis Arab subjects resented the loss of tho rights they claimed in Syria and Palestine, and at the same time Mustap-hn Kemal and the Young Turks wore anxious to take advantage of the youth and weakness of the new State Of course, the prolonged stay of Ihe British garrison in Mesopotamia was studiously misinterpreted by hostile critics, who found a solution for all the international problems of the Middle East in the mystic formula “Oil.” But Faisal's period of probation is over at last. Britain recognises Iraq as a free and independent sovereign State, and lindertakiw to support it as a candidate for membership of the League of Nations i.ll five years' time. Thus a new chapter in the history of Western Asia has opened, and Britain is free from one of the most embarrassing of all tho rosponsibiitics forced upon her hv the Great War.