To say that the British Colonial Office had a difficult time in Iraq would be an understatement, as The Spectator made quite clear in this article, with some very harsh words directed at Lord Winston Churchill. Indeed, the author wrote plainly and without deference to rank when he stated that
“Mesopotamia should be placed in the same file as Gallipoli, along with all the other various assorted fantasies conceived by his Lordship. Mr. Churchill hopes to avert any fresh rising by setting up an Arab Government. The people are to elect a National Assembly this summer, and the Assembly is to choose a ruler…Mr. Churchill admits that that he does not know whether the people of [Iraq], who are rent with tribal, sectarian, racial, and economic feuds, will choose the Emir Feisul.”
Click here to read about Churchill’s other folly: the invasion of Gallipoli.
Click here to read another articles about the British struggle for 1920s Mesopotamia.
