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bank north of Baghdad; and the advance to Deli Abbas was similarly destructive of what had been sown on the Khalis Canal on the right bank of the Diyalah. At a generous estimate there could hardly have been fifty thousand acres of matured crop in the vilayet; and what there was was in the least accessible districts. It is to be remembered that south of Kut the area under wheat and barley is small. The rich district of Amara is more suitable for rice, while throughout Irak the amount of barley grown is five times that of wheat. In normal years Baghdad itself depended for its wheat supply chiefly on the Erbil district of Mosul; but Erbil was in the hands of the Turks. No help was obtainable from Persia, which was indeed in worse plight than Mesopotamia, the passage of four armies, Turks and Russians in succession, having devastated it. Wheat, which had cost 31. to 4 a ton in pre-war days, fetched £T100 at Khanikin; and Khanikin was only on the border. Only at the lower end of the Hillah Canal had there been good crops, these were insufficient to meet the scarcity elsewhere; and there was grave danger that even the seed grain would be consumed.

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There was also also a general feeling of insecurity. Kerbala and Hillah had openly risen against the Turk, and there had been pillage and massacre. Nejef was raw with irritation. It was stated that Turks had invaded harems on the plea of searching for men in hiding to evade military service. The populace was nervous of all authority. Our military situation, too, was none too secure in the eyes of the calculating Arab. The British were indeed in Baghdad, and their forces were established at Falujah on the Euphrates and at Samarra on the Tigris; but Turkish guns commanded the headworks of the five canals that take out of the Diyalah, Ramadi held out, and there was an unsubdued little garrison in Diwaniyah.

The influence of the Chief Political Officer, however, rapidly made itself felt. Political offices were opened at Aziziyah and Bughailah south of Baghdad, also at Kadhimain and Baghdad. Troops were sent to take over the Hindiyah barrage; and week by week fresh Sheikhs came in to make submission. In May a deputa tion of chiefs from the Hindiyah district pressed for the

ecommencement of the canals which were required to omplete the barrage scheme. Funds were provided, ribal labour was arranged, and earthwork was started n the one which had been aligned, even before the ppointment of the irrigation officers, who eventually bok charge of the scheme. In the fourth week of May 1917, a political office was opened at Hillah, and became possible to appreciate more exactly the future ossibilities.

Between Falujah and the barrage there are, besides ne remains of ancient canal systems, five existing canals, wo the property of individuals, the other three belongng to the State. Below the barrage some ninety-five water-courses, with a command varying from 200 to 5,000 acres, and one, the Dagarah, commanding 80,000, ook off the Hillah Canal. The banks were lined, in some laces continuously, in others sparsely, with lifts irrigaing land on levels too high to be reached by flow. But one of the canals had received attention since the outreak of war; the masonry of many was in a ruinous ondition; half the headworks of the largest canal ad been deliberately blocked up.

On the main Euphrates, from the barrage downwards, here was little wheat and barley cultivation except on ft lands. The canals designed by Sir W. Willcocks for he Hindiyah district had not been dug; Sanniyah canals ad been neglected till they ceased to flow. From Kufa own to Samawa it is rice country. Between Nasiriyah nd Hillah there was no British officer and no authority xcept such as resulted from our prestige generally and he influence of Sir Percy Cox in particular.

On the Tigris irrigation depends on the winter flood. 'his is usually sufficient to mature the wheat and barley nd irrigate an early summer crop of short-day maize nd panicum; but the harvest depends both on the noderation and opportuneness of the flood, and is thereore precarious. The only canals are one on the right ank north of Baghdad, and a few small ones in the eighbourhood of Bughailah. All were out of repair; hile above Bughailah there had been, in the previous ear, a bad break in the embankment so close to the anal itself as to threaten destruction to all cultivation n the neighbourhood.

The requirements of the army in the area forward of Kut were estimated at 90,000 tons of cereals, mostly barley. The country was in 1917 not only unable to contribute thereto but the needs of the civil population were being met by imports from India. Yet India is a famine-threatened country, whose surplus in a bad year is very limited; and, in any case, the submarine campaign was making the reduction of tonnage imperative. It was more than prudent, it was necessary, that the force should become as far as possible self-supporting.

III. The Agricultural Development Scheme.-A scheme put forward by the First Revenue Officer, sanctioned by General Maude and approved by the War Council, was designed to secure a harvest sufficient to provide a total crop of 250,000 tons in the year 1918-19. Data were scanty, but it was calculated that 160,000 tons would suffice for the civil population, and the balance would be available for the force. Of these 250,000 tons the revenue share was estimated at 50,000 tons. The intention was to collect the revenue directly in kind, and to employ an Arab revenue staff under political officers in charge of districts, on what would be recognised in India as a gigantic taccavi project. Time was short; and, if the scheme was to prove a success, not an acre fit for ploughing could be disregarded. The co-operation of irrigation officers, and transport and labour directorates, was essential; and accordingly the First Revenue Officer was placed under the orders of the Deputy QuarterMaster General, Major-General Sir R. Stuart Wortley, who alone could co-ordinate the various departments concerned. Military money was being spent by Sir Percy Cox's Staff, but the spending was thus brought directly under military control.

If the scheme was to succeed, it was necessary that the cultivators should be secure from the harassment of war, that they should have confidence in our government, and that they should be provided with such essential ways and means as they could not find for themselves. Diwaniyah was occupied in August; in the early autumn Ramadi fell; and the Turks were also driven from their positions commanding the Diyalah canals. The Arab was at length satisfied that the Turk

would not return to deprive him of the fruits of his usbandry, but he had still to be assured that it was worth his while to work for us. The Arab of the Euphrates had never been very much governed; and t was not till the Sheikhs had come to Baghdad and been personally received by the chief Political Officer, and had seen and heard what was being done under British rule, that real progress was possible.

There was much to give them confidence. Baghdad vas now an orderly city, with clean streets, electric ighting, and busy with traffic. Trade was reviving; nunicipal government was firmly established under the Military Governor; and all the necessary machinery of aw and order was in evidence, including municipal police, night watchmen, a gaol, a hospital, even a fire rigade. A Kadi was appointed, and a Shara' court under his control opened for the disposal of such business s pertained to the personal and religious law of Islam; peace court, under an Arab judge of proved ability and eputed honesty, was established for the disposal of petty auses; and preparations were made for the re-establishent of a department of civil justice. This was accomlished by the end of the year 1917; and tribunals on hich British and Baghdadis sat jointly were set up.

There was now no divided control. The functions of ne Public Debt had of necessity been assumed by the overnment of the occupied territories. At the prices at hich spirits were sold under the old régime, six pennyworth of liquor would suffice to intoxicate the hardesteaded drinker. The control of the trade and the licensing f the shops were therefore at once taken over. The ief salt-pits were in the hands of the Turks; and a mine in salt threatened. The salt monopoly had to be uspended. The tobacco centres were mostly behind the urkish lines; and the supply of tobacco, which is not a xury but a necessity to the Arab, had to be regulated ficially. Bold measures taken with regard to tobacco ad liquor at once enhanced the revenue and secured the upply. While accounts were kept to facilitate post-war djustment with the Debt, the administration was osorbed to the benefit of the Debt and the people, and such a way as to increase confidence.

Baghdad prided itself on its learning, its libraries, and

its past tradition; and education was a problem which demanded immediate attention. An Education Committee was appointed consisting of five of the notables: the Kadi, a man of education and travel and a staunch Mahommedan; with him his cousin, a learned savant and head of one of the oldest Arab families; the third, & liberally-minded literary man, famous for his knowledge of Arabic and his clever writing; the fourth, the scholarly Father Anastase, representing the Christian community; and lastly, a prince of Kurdistan, a cosmopolitan of modern education and progressive thought. There were eighty schoolmasters who applied for work, in the hope that, as there were no schools, they would be granted pensions. All were examined, but only five were found qualified to teach; and these five were ex-head-masters. A primary school was opened at once under these five, while for the remainder an advanced class was started, and lectures, in Arabic, geography, history, and the science of teaching, were arranged. Fifteen teachers declined to attend the course, and of the remaining sixty only twenty-seven passed the examination held at the end of the first three months. With these twenty-seven, five other primary schools were opened. Another course was commenced at the Normal School; and, as teachers qualified, the districts were supplied. Private schools closed during the war were encouraged to re-open, and on passing inspection were granted substantial assistance in cash. The Boy Scout movement was inaugurated. Arabic was made the official language and the vehicle of instruction, but the inhabitants wished to learn English and to have their children taught it; and, as text-books were not forthcoming, a small Arabic-English reader was actually compiled and printed in Baghdad. In the Armenian community a knowledge of English was more precious than a dowry among brides elect; and young spinsters flocked back to school. Later a special class I was opened for clerks, at which typing, shorthand and book-keeping were taught. By the summer of 1918 the work had become so heavy that an Education Depart ment under a Director was established, and the Revenne officer was relieved of what had till then been an additional duty.

There were no revenue maps of the province, and

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