IOR/L/PS/10/755

The volume contains correspondence, memoranda, reports, telegrams and minutes regarding the administration of, and situation in, Mesopotamia [Iraq] following the Asia Minor Agreement of 1916, more commonly known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, between the French and British governments, and the Anglo-French Declaration of November 1918. The volume also concerns the subject of self-determination in Persia [Iran].

The papers notably cover:

• Discussion of advance interpretations of the 1916 Agreement
• The Anglo-French Declaration of November 1918, which publicised their intentions and policy in the former Ottoman territories of Syria and Iraq
• Presentation of the 1918 Declaration to the President of the United States of America by the French Ambassador to the US, Jean Adrien Antoine Jules Jusserand
• Disagreement between the British and French visions of the future administration of Mesopotamia
• The situation in southern Kurdistan
• The 1919 Paris Peace Conference
• Apprehensions of the Baghdad Jewish community about the tenor of the Anglo-French Declaration, including a petition to the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, requesting to be made subjects of the British Crown
• Reaction to the Declaration from the across the Arab world
• Disagreement among the British over the form that Britain’s control in Mesopotamia should take
• The views of the principal sheikhs [shaikhs] of Mesopotamia on the 1918 Agreement
• Discussion among British officials of the benefits of control over Mesopotamia and the view of the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad, Arnold Talbot Wilson, on the situation in Mesopotamia
• Discussion of the potential candidates for the head of the new state of Iraq
• Reports on consultations with political and religious leaders and inhabitants from across Iraq on the future Government of Iraq
• The views of Sir Percy Cox and Arnold Wilson on the situation in Mesopotamia
• The question of the future political status of Mesopotamia, including the views of British officers serving in Syria and the Hejaz
• Discussion of the question of Iraqi self-determination.

Notable documents in this volume include:

• Text by Sir Percy Cox regarding ‘The Future of Mesopotamia’ (ff 308-310 and ff 270-272)
• Extracts from The Times, 26 November 1819, including a series of articles under the title ‘The Arab Campaign’ (ff 230-232)
• The statutes for the independence of Iraq (ff 127-130)
• A memorandum by Major W H Young regarding the future of Mesopotamia (ff 99-112)
• Copies of ‘Self-determination in Iraq’ in Arabic (ff 75-97) and English (ff 57-73).

The principal correspondents are: the India Office, Political Department; the Governor-General of India; the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad; the Military Governor and Political Officer, Baghdad; Government of India, Military Department, the French Ambassador to the United States; and the British Embassy, Paris.

The volume includes a divider, which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.