IOR/L/PS/10/757

The volume consists of drafts, copies, and originals of correspondence, memoranda, minutes, and notes relating to the British administration in and future constitution of Mesopotamia [present-day Iraq]. The volume covers British concern about increasing resistance to their presence in the country following the promises made by the Anglo-French Declaration of November 1918.

Several matters are covered by the volume, including the following:

• The transition from a military to a civil administration in the country
• The future constitution of an independent Iraqi state
• The wording and timing of public announcements to be made about British intentions in the country
• The division of Mesopotamia into ‘tribal’, ‘rural’ and municipal districts under limited governing councils
• The announcement and drafting of the British mandate in Mesopotamia
• The organisation and outcomes of inter-departmental conferences on Mesopotamia’s future
• The findings and proposals of the Bonham-Carter Committee regarding Mesopotamia’s constitution
• Britain’s wider regional policy
• The question of how the Kurds might fit into the future Iraq state.

The principal correspondents are the following: the Foreign Office; the War Office; Arnold Talbot Wilson, Acting Civil Commissioner for Mesopotamia; and the Foreign and Political Department of the Government of India. Other correspondence, included as enclosures, comes from political and military officers from across Mesopotamia and the wider region.

Of note within the volume (folios 235-46) is a translated copy of an article written by Mohammed Roshide Riza [Al-Sayyid Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā], a prominent Islamic scholar and reformist, entitled ‘Political Aspirations of the Arabs and the Moslem [Muslim] World’, dated 25 June 1919.

The French language material consists of a draft copy of the French and British mandates in Syria and Mesopotamia respectively.

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.