(For Report for the period April, 1922, to March, 1923, see
Non-Parliamentary Publication, Colonial No. 4, June, 1924.)

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[Colonial No. 13.]

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7.

8.

5. Jurisdiction over Members of the British Military Forces

6. Extradition of Offenders ..

122

126

128

131

143

145

146

147

148

2. Operations

157

2.

1. Education in ‘Iraq in Turkish times and since .. Medium of Instruction

201

203

(b) Distribution of Weekly Periods allotted to Subjects

219

REPORT

BY

HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT

ON THE

ADMINISTRATION OF

'IRAQ

FOR THE PERIOD

APRIL, 1923—DECEMBER, 1924.

I. SURVEY OF THE PERIOD.

1. Outline of Political Developments.

GENERAL POLITICAL SITUATION.

The year and nine months under review is perhaps the most satisfactory period which has yet been recorded in these reports. Although it does not end with the final settlement of all the major problems, internal and external, which confront the 'Iraq State, it has witnessed on the part of the 'Iraq Government a determination to seek right solutions and on the part of the people a willingness to accept them.

At the beginning of the financial year 1923-24, the country had recently recovered from the crisis of the preceding August, when the agitation among the Arab extremists against the British Mandate for 'Iraq had culminated on the anniversary of King Faisal's accession in a public insult to the High Commissioner. The belief was still prevalent that Great Britain designed to rule behind an Arab façade, and the twenty years' period of tutelage prescribed by the treaty of alliance between Great Britain and 'Iraq, signed in October, 1922, confirmed this belief. The cry

of the extremists was that the real masters of the country were still the British officials and that the Arab Government was a sham. Revenue had been difficult to collect, and a deficit of about 80 lakhs of rupees was apprehended in the accounts of the financial year 1922-23. The people and Government were doubtful of the intentions of Great Britain in regard to the claims on Mosul which the Turks, emboldened by their recent victory over the Greeks, had actively pressed at the first Conference at Lausanne, and this doubt had cast a blight upon all public affairs. It had been fostered by the press agitation in Great Britain against the acceptance of the 'Iraq mandate. The presence of Turkish

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A 3