MESOPOTAMIA REVOLT.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 211, 3 September 1920, Page 5

MESOPOTAMIA REVOLT.

GROWING DISAFFECTION. ATTACKS ON THE RAILWAY. (By Cable. —Preee Association.—Copyright.) (Received 1 p.m.) LONDON, September 2. A War Office communique states that the situation in Mesopotamia shows some improvement in the disturbed area, but disaffection is growing in districts not yet openly in rebellion. The rebels attacked the Samwab railway station on August 29. It is still invested. The Muntafik Arabs, aroused by fanatics preaching a Jehad, and encouraged by the withdrawal of British officers, attacked Samara railway station, north of Bagdad, and captured the ferry, | which was retaken by local levies, the tribesmen being dispersed. The Istabulat station was attacked and burned The Sumeioha stntion was attacked by rebels, who were repulsed. En* , Mosul' the Sierchi tribes seized Batas, and are now attacking the garrison at Rowanduz. The garrison at Kingirban is being relieved. —(Rcutcr.) A PRISONER MURDERED. (Received 1.30 p.m.) DELHI, September 2. Captain Salmon, of the Devon Regiment, assistant political officer at Kifri, 80 miles north-east of Bagdad, who was tjiken prisoner last week, has been mv' dered by tribesmen. — (Reuter.) The Arabs in Mesopotamia are showing determined hostility to the proposed British mandate, to the methods under which British authority was exercised, to the taxation, to the Civil Service, a policy backed up by a standing army, the whole costing £100,000,000 of British money in 11)20 for a population of 3,000|000. All efforts by the British authorities to quieten the country merely resulted in further outbreaks, and the situation in Mesopotamia', where the Arab tribes had been restive ever since the defeat of the Turk, reached a crisis early in July, when it was reported that a rising had occurred" at the town of Runieilfl, and that the garrison there, consisting of a email detachment of British and Indian troops, had been isolated. After several vain attempts a British column finally fought its way into the town, and the garrison, which had been fed by means of aeroplane, was relieved. The next evdence of anti-British feeling on the part of the natives was the Hillah disaster, where, in a surprise attack by Arabs, the British lost the colonel and 300 men of the Second Mancheetcrs. More recently still railway bridges were burnt, communications between the various garrisons were cut, and British fcflicers murdered. The revolutionary movement, founded in opposition to British rule, has been growing stronger every, day, and pacification of the tribes will be difficult without the expenditure of sums of money far in excess of the worth of the country to Britain.