We shall be asked, no doubt, what we propose as
an alternative to Mr. Lloyd George's plans. Our answer is that we cannot leave the district which is roughly described as the Head of the Persian Gulf, but that Mesopotimia as a whole, if we are to be responsible for it at all, must be governed in just such a way as we used to govern the countries for which no Parliamentary grants were made. The management of the old non-regulation provinces in India and Lord Cromer's masterly conduct of the finances of Egypt are cases in point. That sort of administration is happily in accordance with the British genius. If we are told that we have lost the art, and that we cannot run a country well because it is to be run with very little money indeed, then we shall have to say that we must abandon Mesopotamia.
