Ordered by the Sultan to protect the new Ffedjaz Railway
from the Bedouin, he was at Damascus with only a small force when, on the proclamation of the Constitution, he was instructed to disband his followers and summoned to the capital. After temporising at first, Ibrahim refused to recognise instructions except from the Sultan direct, and returned to Viranshehr, where a brawl between the Hamidieh and the Turkish soldiers led to his supersession and outlawry. Finally, after abortive negotiations, Ibrahim took refuge in flight, pursued by the Turkish Regulars and Bashi-Bazonks, and died in the desert. His town has been destroyed, the whole territory of the Milli Kurds laid waste, and twenty thousand of his people are now homeless and starving. In commenting on the situation, the Times correspondent, while admitting, that Ibrahim7u position—an imporium in imperio—was undesirable, asserts that the proposal, now strongly advocated by interested local officials and notables, to break up the tribal organisa- tions, banish the chiefs, and compel the nomads to settle down, would be both impracticable and unwise. The situation in Northern Mesopotamia, in fine, will severely test the administrative capacity, the good sense, and the justice of the new regime.
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