Review Arnold Wilson, Loyalties Mesopotamia 1914-1917, A Personal and Historical Record, Oxford University Press, 1930

Wilson, Arnold, Loyalties Mesopotamia 1914-1917, A Personal and Historical Record, Oxford University Press, 1930

 

Arnold Wilson was a political officer for the British Expeditionary Force that invaded Mesopotamia in 1914 during World War I. His Loyalties Mesopotamia 1914-1917 details both the fighting in Iraq and how the English set up an administration to govern the conquered territories. Two main takeaways were how badly India managed the war and how much Wilson and the British resented the Arabs they came to rule over.

 

The Mesopotamia campaign suffered from mission creep. Wilson explains that the original orders were to protect the oil fields in Persia and occupy Basra city in what is today’s southern Iraq. India which initially ran the war immediately started talking about taking Baghdad while generals on the ground wanted to continuously move north to expand their base in Mesopotamia.

 

India never sent enough troops, supplies and managers to efficiently accomplish these goals. Men and material for example piled up in Basra city unable to get up to the front because of the lack of transportation. These mistakes culminated in the 1916 defeat at Kut the second biggest setback for the British during World War I where thousands of troops surrendered to the Ottomans many of which died under captivity.

 

The book explains how long it took for the British to get themselves together. It wasn’t until 1916 that boat transportation was finally organized and a railroad was built something that India objected to. In 1917 the port of Basra was expanded and modernized. Medical service was horrible throughout most of the war leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths.

 

Wilson quotes a 1917 government investigation that found India lacked the capacity to wage war in Mesopotamia and made unrealistic plans. Things should have been run out of London instead but that didn’t happen until after the loss at Kut. Wilson spends a lot of time dwelling on all the things that went wrong and the consequences on the battlefield.

 

Another major theme of Loyalties Mesopotamia is how much the British hated the Arabs they conquered during the war. Wilson repeatedly talks about how Arabs killed and looted retreating and wounded Ottoman and British troops. He said that as a result Arabs were generally considered murderers and thieves.

 

The author mentions how halfway through the war an official in London said that the army in Mesopotamia should organize Arabs into a military force and bring them into the administration. Wilson rejected both ideas saying that the Arabs were useless as soldiers because they had no discipline and that none had come forward to help govern Mesopotamia because they were either loyal to the Ottomans or afraid of their retribution. His general view was that the Arabs were dangerous and were not to be trusted. Instead of empowering them he wanted the British to rule the areas they took from the Ottomans as a protectorate. Something he would actually get to do when he became the High Commissioner for Iraq under the British Mandate after the war.

 

Arnold Wilson’s book has its ups and downs. Sometimes he goes into too much detail about the administration of Mesopotamia that can get dry. Other times he gives a blow by blow account of the various battles during the campaign. It is still an important book on Iraqi History because it gives a general view of how the British came to rule Iraq and their negative opinion of the inhabitants. Wilson wasn’t just a regular official either as he would go on to run Iraq for several years as the High Commissioner so the ideas he formed during the war came to shape his policies when Iraq was a British Mandate. You can learn all about them from Loyalties Mesopotamia.

 

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