The Waikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1925. THE TRUTH ABOUT MOSUL.

Waikato Times, Volume 99, Issue 16652, 18 November 1925, Page 6

The Waikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1925. THE TRUTH ABOUT MOSUL.

That region in the north of Mesopotamia, where the plain in which an early civilisation struggled to light approaches the grim mountain barrier, is now practically a British concern, it is futile lo deny or to repudiate the intimate connection, in this year of grace, between London and Mosul. In the immense modern historical process that is determining the fortunes of the Britisli Empire the Mosul region, with its population of Kurds and Arabs, and an infinitesimal proportion of Turks, has almost imperceptibly acquired—for our prestige, for our honour, for the subtle vibrations of influence and character that define our position in the world —a vital character. There is a contest, a serious contest, with Turkey, who claims the region, as we consider without' any sound ethnical, political, or economic reason. A dispute has arisen between ourselves and Turkey on these very ethnical and political and economic facts. The dispute has lasted for years. Neither side has attempted to decide the dispute by war. There is, indeed, not the slightest occasion for war; for no military operation could ever decide the question that is cpally in dispute. And the assumption, now most frivolously made by certain timorous souls, that the calm assertion of the vital connection between Mosul and Iraq must inevitably lead to war between Great Britain and Turkey is not only a poetic exaggeration; it is frankly absurd. The position is simply this. As a result of the war, in which Turkey was thoroughly defeated, the former Ottoman Empire has been broken up into a number of separate States. One of these States, which is- composed of Anatolia and Constantinople, has assumed, after many vicissitudes, the form of a vehemently Nationalist and almost homogeneous Turkish Republic, under the rule of a very able general, the Ghazi Mustapha Kemal Pasha. The war is over, the spirit of reconciliation is rapidly gaining ground, and there arc few people outside Turkey who do not desire that the new Turkish Republic in the present ethnographical limits should enjoy all the benefits of its strongly-expressed desire to affirm its existence and its progress on modern lines. In Great Britain, at any rate, there is no wish anywhere to hamper the normal development of the new Turkey. Another Stale which has been formed through the break-up of the Ottoman Empire in the war is Irak, or Mesopotamia, and it is sharply distinguished from Turkey by the fact that its population is predominantly Arabic and not Turkish. It has fallen to Great Britain —mainly through the fortunes of v,- ar —lo nurse this new Arab State into a tolerable political existence. The task was difficult in the beginning, and the confusion and the disappointments of those early days did not tend to make the novel appellation of Iraq altogether popular in Great Britain. Yet during the last few years the quiet, steady effort of a surprisingly small number of British administrators has brought order out of what seemed chaos, and the outlines of a really independent State of Iraq are now clear. The State is \ery nearly self-supporting. Expenditure on the part of the British Treasury has been reduced to £4,000,000 a year, and at least half of this is accounted for by the Air Force, which, if it were not usefully employed in Mesopotamia, would have lo he maintained somewhere else. Out of the scattered and wandering tribes.of the plains and the populous commercial centres on the big rivers a new and important political community lias been formed under British guidance. 'This new Arab Stale contains the promise of very interesting political and economic developments in an area that more Ilian once in history has been the seat Of a floursihing civilisation. The seed has been sown—perhaps with weeptjUr. Our hands have guided the

plough. Can we go back now before the harvest is safe? Irak is, indeed, now more than over our special concern, because this new political unit which has definitely taken its place in the series of States that stretch from the Mediterranean lo India is identified with British pledges that arc not now words merely, but gallant and patent deeds, and evidences of the daily assertion of British character in difficult circumstances. The question, then, really at issue is to which of the new Slates formed out of the old Ottoman Empire should the Mosul region really belong—to Irak, which lies south of the high limiting mountains, or to the Turkish Republic, whose home is in the valleys and on the plateaux behind that most conspicuous geographical barrier. Mosul lies to the south of the mountains. Geographically and economically it forms an integral part of the Irak plain. The peoples wh6 inhabit it are not Turks, but for an insignificant fraction. Many are Arabs, of the same race and customs as the inhabitants of Southern Irak. In the north-eastern corner, towards Persia, the majority are Kurds, who are certainly not anxious to be given over to Turkey. Mosul, with its rich cornlands, is commercially and politically essential to Irak. It is not essential to Turkey; the geographical and political equilibrium of the Turkish Republic would be seriously disturbed by the addition of the Mosul region south of the mountains. And the best way of making peace between the Turkish Republic and Irak fairly sure would be to draw the frontier along the natural limit where the mountains meet the plain. The task of defending the interests of the new Irak State in this matter of frontiers has fallen naturally upon Great Britain.-, There has never been any question of settling this disputed point by war. There is no question now. The dispute has been referred lo the Council of thp League of Nations. At Geneva the case for Irak was stated calmly, strongly, and very fairly by Mr Amery. The Turks vehemently asserted their claim, hut they did not finally dissociate themselves from the arbitrament of the League. They could hardly do so, because by their long public contention they had, in fact —whatever their theory may he —committed themselves lo the judgment of world opinion. It is hardly credible that they would go lo war now over the question, since in any case tlieoconditions would he unfavourable, and, after all, they have agreed to the appointment of a League Commissioner who will guard against infractions of the “Brussels line" pending the reference of the question of the League’s arbitral competency to the Hague Court. The need for the moment is patience and a calm conviction that British hands are clean and the cause defended by Great Britain—in relation to Kurds, Arabs, and to the Assyrian and Chaldean Christians—is one of justice and honour. The only motive that might now provoke the Tjirks to any rash military adventure would be the impression that Great Britain would rather betray her honour than struggle by all honourable means for what she believes to be right.