Sir Percy Cox, the High Commissioner for Mesopotamia, . reported
last week that the provisional native Council of State had begun its work. Alder Pasha, Minister of Defence, was , considering the question of enrolling an Arab army, so that the British forces of occupation might be reduced. Colonel Joyce, who served under the Emir Feisal, had been appointed as one of the commanders of the existing Arab levies. Order had been restored on the Middle Euphrates, and a mixed com- mission of British and Arab members would devise methods of administering that region. An Arab officer who had served in Syria had been appointed as the civil governor of the Baghdad division. Sir Percy Cox has lost no time in showing that we desire the natives of Mesopotamia to govern themselves. But the Council of State has no easy task before ,it, in view of ,the feuds between •the towns and 'the tribes, and among the tribes and the religious sects, which the Turks encouraged in order to profit by Arab disunion. Miss Gertrude Bell's recent valuable report on the civil administration of Mesopotamia is illuminating In this respect.
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