ARAB RESTLESSNESS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 March 1921, Page 5

ARAB RESTLESSNESS.

MESOPOTAMIA AND SYRIA, WATCHING LONDON CONFERENCE. London, Feb. 22. The correspondent of the Times at Bagdad states that the uncertainty of the British Government’s intentions in Mesopotamia is producing a “creeping paralysis” of the railways, which are performing their functions only with enormous difficulty. The fact that the League of Nations is still retouching the mandate for Mesopotamia is a further obstacle to settled conditions, as no Arab has yet seen the terms which are supposed to determine his future. The elections will be fought on the issue of mandate or no mandate. There is a probability that the Assembly will reject the mandate outright, though the members have not seen it, for it has been falsely represented to them as involving British Imperial domination. Leading business men approve of the practicability of raising loans for productive purposes, on which the British taxpayer should recover. It is considered that if the British supported these loans the Bagdad and Basra- bazaars would probably subscribe £2,000,000. The Cairo correspondent of the Times draws attention to a new revolutionary movement among the Arab tribes east of the Jordan, outside the British zone. Syrian refugees from the French zone are joining in large numbers, and infantry staffs have already been formed. The London Conference is watched with Jfense anxiety, and the .revolutionary tribes are determined on action in the event of the Arab question not being settled to the satisfaction of the Arab nation. Meanwhile civil organisation is progressing, and a nucleus is being formed under the name of the PrpI visional Syrian Government,