IOR/L/MIL/17/5/3324

The volume contains a chronological list of brief summaries of papers relating to the activities of the Indian Expeditionary Force D (also known as the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force) between 1 and 31 July 1919. This is accompanied by appendices containing copies and extracts of these papers, which include: telegrams, memoranda, and tables.

An index to the contents of this volume can be found at folios 3-7.

The volume concerns:

• Supply of food, weaponry, construction materials, and other items to Force D
• Military personnel issues, including reinforcements, demobilisation, and travel and accommodation arrangements for families of soldiers
• Railway construction in Mesopotamia
• Intelligence concerning a planned ‘Pan-Islamic upheaval after Ramzan [Ramaḍān]’
• Discussion of the activities of the King-Crane Commission
• Discussion of propaganda produced by ‘Feisal’ [Fayṣal Al-Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī] calling for the ‘complete Independence of Arabia’
• British censorship of telegrams, photographs, and newspapers
• Disposal of surplus weaponry by Force D
• Report on the conditions in South Kurdistan following the defeat and capture of ‘Sheikh Mahmud’ [Shaikh Maḥmūd Barzanjī]
• Financial administration of Mesopotamia
• Matters relating to the government of Mesopotamia, including: requests by Arab officers for a ‘purely national Civil Government in Mesopotamia’; British opposition to greater involvement of local populations in government; and the usefulness of Mesopotamia for British policy in the wider Middle East
• Assessment by the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf of the conditions in Basrah [Basra] and Nasiriyeh [Nasiriyah] (ff 54-55)
• Discussion of violence in Central Kurdistan, including: the killing of administrative officials by ‘local Gendarmerie’; reports of Kurds near Amadia [Amadiya] ‘attacking Christian villages’; and British preparations for ‘quietening the district’
• The appointment of Colonel William Nafew Haskell as the Allied High Commissioner in Armenia
• Events in Persia [Iran], including: the surrender of high profile rebels: the activities of Bakhtiari [Bakhtiyārī] tribes; and British attempts to recruit Persian Kurds to fight ‘in case of incursion by Bolsheviks’.

The volume also contains:

• Weekly returns of sick and wounded for the weeks ending 24 May 1919 (ff 9-10), 31 May 1919 (ff 16-17), 7 June 1919 (ff 39-41), 14 June 1919 (ff 67-68), 21 June 1919 (ff 77-78), and 28 June 1919 (ff 92-94)
• Ration strength of Force D on 10 May 1919 (ff 36-38), 5 July 1919 (ff 43-44), 12 July 1919 (f 58), 19 July 1919 (f 81), and 26 July 1919 (f 109)
• Distribution of Force D including details of lines of communication, 1 July 1919 (ff 110-122).