The Struggle for Independence 143
were expended. In the financial year 1919-20 16 per cent, of all
expenditure was devoted to Headquarters and the costs of ad-
ministration, and this marked a reduction from previous years;
another n per cent, nominally for public works, was largely
applied to improving the amenities of British and Indian officials.
Wilson had expressed the view that the interests of the country
would be served by having a large proportion of British personnel
in all branches of the administration. The Divisional Advisory
Councils, composed of Arabs, had no influence on policy. Less
than 4 per cent, of the senior-grade officials were Arab, and on the
railways there were nearly five times as many Indian as Iraqi per-
sonnel. After the Rebellion had already begun Gertrude Bell
wrote, 'On the whole, the wonder is that there are so many
moderates and reasonable people. I try to count myself among
them, but I find it difficult to maintain a dispassionate calm when
I reflect on the number of blunders we have made.*
The garrison consisted of 80,000 troops, nearly half the size of
the standing army of India with a hundred times the population.
The general situation had long been known to be threatening; but
Army H.Q. had tended to place little faith in the reports of the
Political Officers of the Civil Administration. When the Rebel-
lion broke out at the end of June, the C.-in-C. and the bulk of his
staff were at their Persian hill-station; only 4,200 British troops,
almost all new to the country and without previous military ex-
perience, and 30,000 Indians were available for service in Iraq; and
only 500 British and 2,500-3,000 Indians were available as a mobile
force. The main centre of the Rebellion was the tribal area of the
Middle Euphrates, and though.the moderate nationalists held aloof
it lasted from July to September, when it was put down by heavy
reinforcements. Over 400 British and Indian troops were killed,
and the rebels were estimated to have suffered 8,450 casualties. It
cost Britain .£20,000,000, and in Iraq the damage to railways and
loss of revenue amounted to more than .£400,000.
Sir Percy Cox arrived on i October to take back the supreme
authority from Wilson with the new title of High Commissioner.
He had the advantage of his great personal prestige, and handled
the situation in a more sympathetic spirit than his predecessor. A
provisional Council of State was set up, consisting of Arab
ministers, who were, however, subject to the advice of their British
Advisers and, in the last resort, to the High Commissioner whose