144 A Short History of the Middle East
decision was final in all matters. There was no intention of trans-
ferring the administration to the Iraqis any faster than practical
considerations demanded. The situation was very comparable
with that of Cramer's Egypt: British heads and Iraqi hands; and
in fact the country was at about the same stage of development.
But at least a concession had been made to national aspirations by
appointing Iraqi ministers. The Iraqi officers stranded in Syria
after the French suppression of Faisal's government in July 1920
were encouraged to return to Iraq. The garrisoning of Iraq was in
1921 handed over to the R.A.F., and its cost progressively reduced
In three to four years to one-seventh of its former figure. Never-
theless the extreme nationalists were not appeased, and it was
alleged that they were receiving material help from nationalist
Turkey and Bolshevist Russia. Gertrude Bell wrote, If we hesi-
tate in appointing a king, the tide of public opinion may turn over-
whelmingly to the Turks/ At the Cairo Conference called by the
Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill, in March 1921 the choice
finally fell on Faisal, for whom Cox's staff and especially Gertrude
Bell began to make active propaganda in Iraq.1 The popular
reception on his arrival was lukewarm, but the administration
made every effort to secure a favourable vote in the projected
referendum. A printed form containing a resolution in his favour
was sent to the Divisional Officers to obtain the signatures of the
notables. Annexures asking for the continuance of British control
were encouraged, while any addition of a nationalist character was
punished, and the mutasarrif of Baghdad was forced to resign for
permitting them. The majority-vote of a town or district was
regarded for the purpose of enumeration as unanimous.2 As
Gertrude Bell remarked with her curious mixture of cynicism
and ingenuousness, it was 'politics running on wheels greased
with extremely well-melted grease'. The official return gave
Faisal 96 per cent, of the votes, while independent observers were
disposed to give him two-thirds.3
1 St. John Philby, then Adviser to the Ministry of the Interior, who favoured a
republic, was dismissed for obstructing the official policy.
s Similarly in the United States, the party in each state which gains a majority,
however small, fills the whole of that state's seats in the electoral college that
elects the President.
* The Kirkuk liwa with its Turcoman population voted against him, and the
Kurdish liwa of Sulaimaniya boycotted the referendum. The ShFis, who con-
stitute a majority in the whole country, demanded the end of foreign control, as
did over 80 per cent, of the poll in Baghdad.