Page 75 - Gulf Precis (VI)_Neat

Chapter III- 63
Thcro is probably no province in tbe Turkish Empire which might be governed with
moro enso and at a less expense than the large Pashalic of Baghdad. There is certainly no
province which affords greater facilities for the development of industry and the extension
of trade. On the one hand the Arab tribes of Mesopotamia are naturally unwailiko.
Great provocation can alono rouse them into hostility, while sustained misgovernment can
alone render that hostility formidable. On the other hand if any moderate degree of security
oxistod the country is fo rich, the influx of visitors is 60 great the means of transport
afforded by thoso magnificiont rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, are so ample and so excellent
that commerce must flourish and peace and happiness must follow in its train.
Yot with all these advantages the Pashalic of Irak is now almost a desert. It has been
the misfortune of tho country for the last 9 years to bo subjected to all possiblo abuses of
Government. Tho rapacity and corruption of Ncjib Pasha held tho provinco in farm for
about 0 years, not only arrested all progress, but actually forced trado backwards, and led to
general impoverishment and in some cases to tho depopulation of districts. The utter
incompetence of his two successors brought the authority of the Government into contempt
and the headstrong violence of the present Chief seeking with insufficient means to re-es­
tablish absoluto power, has put the finishing stroke to the calamities of the country. Naumik
Pasha inaugurated his government by acts of severity' which were totally uncalled for, be
then go-aded the tribo chiefs one by ono into a hostilo confederation against the Government;
and he has since by exhibiting sometimes military weakness; by countenancing at other
times measures of perfidy' aud scones of cruelty, which it would be shacking to relate, and by
maintaining throughout n violcnco of language and haughtiness of demeanour which to tho
Bedoins of the desert arc of all things the most insupportable. So completely excited and
exasperated the Arab population of the provinco that it would require perhaps a force of
60,000 men to put down opposition and restore general tranquillity.
If Namik Pasha had exhibited but ordinary prudence, when in a recent occasion as
reported in my last despatch disunion broko out in the ranks of the insurgents, there would
have been a fair chance of an honourable termination of his difficulties several indeed of tho
most influential of the Arab Chiefs withdrew from the field and sent into Baghdad for
torms, and if theso parties had been conciliated, the submission of the others would iu all
probability have followed. To one and all however the same imperious answer was returned,
that it was beneath the diginity of tho Sultan’s representative to treat with rebels they were
required to surrender unconditionally, to appear iu person at Baghdad and to sue for
pardon their cases ovould be then considered. This of course was considered by tho Chiefs
as equivalent to condemning them to imprisonment or transportation, and, accordingly,
as their power was in reality undiminished, they laid a side their differences and met once
more to resist tho common enemy since then matters have becu daily growing worse. The
outlying detachments of the Turkish troops have been cut up or driven in the larger bodies
of troops nro beleaguered in their camps. Caravans have been plundered almost within
sight of tho walls of Baghdad, and as large bodies of horse, ten or twelvo thousand strong,
are now mvoing up from various quarters, there is an imminent prospect of tho city being
invested, in so far at least as such an operation can be carried out by mere parties of irregular
cavalry under such circumstances trade of course is annihilated, and tho British Mercantile
houses established at Baghdad threatened with severe loss have appealed to me for assistance.
But the only assistance I can render them is thus briefly to being their case under your
Lordship’s notice and to suggest that, although the Ottoman Government may view with
no great anxiety the disorganisation of this Pashalic, considered merely as involving loss
of revenue and waste of life or even as inflicting discredit on the Porte in the eyes of the
neighbouring state of Porsia, still they could hardly manifest the same in difference to
Namik Pasha’s misgovemment; if Your Lordship were to authorize a remonstrance from
Colonel Rose on the ground of direct injury to British interest.
13 3. The tyrannical rule of the Turkish Pashas soon drove the tribes again
to rebellion. Major Bawlinson describes
•Bombay, Volumo 32 of 1832.
iu his despatches* quoted below how the
whole province was ablaze with insurrections movements and how the conflict­
ing military and civil authorities were at a loss to put them down :—

No. 25, datod Baghdad, tho 27th July 1852.
From—Muon H. Riwlinson, Her Majesty’s British Consul-General, Baghdad,
To—Colonel Hooa Rose, c.d., His Majesty’s Chargd d’AfTairos, Constantinople.
Affairs in this Pashalic aro again plunged into a state of most complete disorder. Wadce
Beg convinced, as far as ho is personally concerned, that Namik Pasha is inexorable to all
supplication and inaccessible to tho mediation of others has within the last ten days, resumed
the offensive, hoping, os it would seem towring from His Excellency's necessities, that which
is unattainable by any other means. The combined forces of the Khczail Maadannnd Anizon
Arabs are now bclcaguoring the camp of Reshid Pasha at Diwameh avoiding actual collision
with the troops but interrupting their communications, destroying their supplies, cutting off
strugglcrs and keeping the soldiers almost continually under arms, while Wadce Beg in person
has moved up with a very largo body of horse and aftor ravaging the Government lauds and
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