The New York herald., 1921-02-20
BRITAIN TDIVDED
ON THE RETENTION
OF MESOPOTAMIA
Large Sums Already Spent:
Oil Prospects and Buffer
Prompt Policy.
GET OUT, SOME ARGUE
BOlshevists VIII Be Barred
From India by Agreement
With Afghanistan.
GET OUT, SOME ARGUE
STANDARD OIL Is BLAMED
Campaign to Leave Country to
Arabs Is Laid to U. s. Com
pany's Agents.

Special Gable to THE New YORK HERALD.
Copyright, 1921. bv TIE New YORK HERALD
New York Herald Bureau.
London. Feb. ID.
Great Britain with Mesopotamia on
her hands is pretty much in the posi-
ton of the negro with bear. She is
undecided whether it is wiser to hang
on or let go. and is compromising by
hanging on by the tail. This III de-
fined, uncomfortable attitude persists
now that Winston Spencer Churchill Is
settled In the Colonial Office, to which
Mesopotamla has been assigned, and
on the eve of the submission Of the
text of the Mesopotamia mandate to
the League Of Nations Council next
week.
After a careful investigation IN
many quarters here, THE New YORK
HERALD correspondent is convinced
that the above rude simile actually
represents the situation. There have
been many wild reports, ranging all
the way from the charge that Great
Britain was in "the Garden of Para
disc" building up Near Eastern en-
pire at the cost Of America and her
other Allies and meanwhile cornering
the worlds future oil supply; that she
was there exercising huge force of
armed men as a new means of making
war; to the charge that she was pre-
pairing to scuttle out Of the Near East
ern imbroglio and to leave Mesopo-
tamia and all the Near East to their
own devices.
These diverse reports come from
two violently diverse schools OF
thought. One acts on the thesis that
the spending of q pound sterling every
second, as was revealed in the last
budget, plus a supplementary esti-
mate OF f36,000,000 is more than any
acquisition of territorial prestige or
undeveloped resources is worth to 4
nation with 100000 unemployed and
which is paying yearly a tax of f21
per capita. The demand is to cut
loose and not to throw more good
| money after bad, these persons be-
lieving there is not much either po-
litically or in petroleum in Mesopo
tamia anyway.
Fuel OIL supply Is Lure.
The other school believes that the
ruture fuel oil supply of the empire
must come from there; that British
hegemony is vital to protect India
and England's connection herewith.
Despite Mr.. Churchills we'll known
reputation for love of adventure. there
is every reason to believe that he is not
violently imperialistic where Mesopo-
tamia is concerned Furthermore. the
British Governments plans at present
lie well between the two extremes out
lined. They contemplate the erection
OF a more or less autonomous Arab State,
the withdrawal of the main British
forces and their concentration in a
strong but relatively small garrison at
Basra Con the Shat-el-Arab. about sixty
miles from the Persian Gulf and 270
miles southeast of Bagdad) and police
supervision OF the hnterland. largely by
air patrols.
Although the terms OF the mandate
as published provide for perfect equality
OF all nations in the areas covered ty
the mandate, Mesopotamia Is now
closed preserve, and no man really
knows what is going on there and will
not know until the authorities decide
that order has been established In the
country according to British ideas.
The opposition here is beginning TO
demand Information regarding what is
going on in Mesopotania, asserting that
II the Mesopotamian administration IS.
behind a veil, giving the Arabs dose
OF "Blacll and Tanism'' ultimately it
will be just as dangerous a policy as
if the administration had invited the
Bolshevili into the country The ut
most confidence is expressed in most
quarters here. however. in Sir Percy
Cox, at present the High Commissioner
in Mesopotamia, who reports progress
in establishing order there and success
in inducing the Arabs who participated
in the uprising last year TO give up their
arms, support the sheiks and help or
ganize their own central government.