IOR/L/PS/18/B226

The confidential letter reports on the tribal situation in Mesopotamia [Iraq], describing the various tribes located in the different listed geographic areas and noting whether they were friendly or hostile to British forces. The sections in the letter include:

• General - reporting on the check received by the British force at Ctesiphon, 22 November 1915, which had temporarily changed the progress of their advance, but that it had not appeared to have changed the tribes attitudes towards them;
• Euphrates Line, reporting on the tribes of the Nasirayah [al-Nāsirīyah] neighbourhood and of Ajaimi [al-‘Ajamī] of the Muntafik [al-Muntafiq] who was in the Samawa [al-Samāwah] neighbourhood;
• Shatt-al-Hai [Shaṭṭ al-Gharrāf], reporting that Khayun-el-Obeid, the Chief of Al Abudah had been stirred up by Turkish officers and had now abandoned his allegiance to Britain, detailing which other chiefs in the area were likely to follow him, and reporting on the Bani Rubiah who were now actively hostile towards them;
• Tigris Line, reporting that good relations had continued with some of the tribes along river, with the exception of the Zubaid [al-Zubayd] and Shammar Toqah Arabs as there had not been sufficient time to develop British relations with them;
• Karun [Kārūn], reporting that there were tribes in the area loyal to the Shaikh of Muhammareh (Shaikh Khaz‘al bin Jābir al-Ka‘bī) [Muhammarah, now Khorramshahr] , an ally of the British, and that Germany had attempted to gain influence around the oil-fields in the area, but had not succeeded;
• Persia, discussing the British-Persian alliance which was under negotiation, and the fact that the British would have sufficient warning should any force move towards Bushire;
• Arabia, reporting on the conclusion of a treaty with Ibn Saʻūd and relations with the new Shaikh of Kuwait (Jābir bin Mubārak Āl Sabāh).