IOR/L/PS/18/B213

The papers comprise as follows:

• A note by Sir (Frederic) Arthur Hirtzel, Secretary, Political and Secret Department, India Office, dated 14 March 1915, indicating factors to be considered in ensuring Basra’s future immunity from Turkish authority, organised under a number of subheadings: geography; ethnology; communications, including roads, railways, and waterways; irrigation; administrative reorganisation; the geographical area to be detached from Turkish authority; the nature of the new administration; protected area; and Persia (folios 77-83);
• A note by General Sir Edmund George Barrow, Military Secretary, India Office, dated 16 March 1915, on the defence of Mesopotamia [Iraq], written in response to Hirtzel’s note, and considering the military implications of defending Mesopotamia (folios 83-84);
• Comments on Barrow’s note by Hirtzel, dated 17 March 1915, chiefly concerned with Turkish influence in the Arab world (folios 84-85);
• A telegram from the Viceroy (Charles Hardinge) to the Marquess of Crewe, Secretary of State for India, dated 15 March 1915, regarding the importance of British administration of the vilayets (administrative regions) of Basra and Bagdad [Baghdad], and ownership of the Baghdad railway (folio 85);
• A map entitled ‘Eastern Turkey in Asia’, indicating the Baghdad railway (completed and projected sections), the Hejaz railway, Aleppo Mezerib line, and the Turko-Persian frontier (folio 86).