Abstract: The file contains proofs of official prints required for the statutory commission on the Mesopotamian Expedition [the Mesopotamia Commission, 1916-17]. The papers include transcripts of telegrams and letters (some paraphrased) from the Secretary of State for India, the Viceroy, and the Commander of the Expeditionary Force, 1915-16, General Sir John Eccles Nixon. The file includes papers relating to operations in 1914-15, medical arrangements on the expedition (folios 33-60), press allegations concerning the advance from Kut-el-Amara [Kut Al-Amarah] in 1916 (folios 91-93), and the question of occupying Baghdad (folios 31-32).The papers are enclosed an a folder inscribed on the front cover: 'Military Department. Previous Papers', and labelled '3'. A further label on the front cover is printed 'Mesopotamia Commission, 28 Abingdon Street, Westminster.'Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 127; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.Pagination: there are five additional printed pagination sequences in parallel between ff 64-90, ff 91-93, ff 94-103, ff 109-177, and ff 120-126.
Abstract: The file contains memoranda, correspondence, and other papers relating to the Mesopotamia [Iraq] Commission (the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the Mesopotamia campaign), British policy in relation to Mesopotamia after the First World War, and the Cabinet Committee on Iraq.These papers include:‘MEMORANDUM BY LORD CURZON ON THE REPORT OF THE MESOPOTAMIA COMMISSION.’, printed for the War Cabinet, 4 June 1917 (ff 2-7)‘BRITISH POLICY IN MESPOTAMIA. Memorandum by Lord Curzon.’, 21 September 1917 (ff 14-18)‘PEACE CONFERENCE. MEMORANDUM RESPECTING MESOPOTAMIA.’ (with appendices, some of which are in French), by Sir Erle Richards, printed for the War Cabinet (ff 19-33), which includes three maps on folios 30, 31 and 32 (Mss Eur F112/286, f 30; Mss Eur F112/286, f 31; and Mss Eur F112/286, f 32)Conclusions and draft conclusions of meetings of the Cabinet Committee on Iraq of 8 December 1922 and 18 January 1923 (ff 34-44 and ff 59-64 respectively)The report of the Cabinet Committee on Iraq, 23 March 1923 (ff 70-76)‘Memorandum on the Assyro-Chaldean Situation.’, Foreign Office, 11 October 1923.The correspondence consists of letters to Curzon from: Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery, First Lord of the Admiralty; Sir Eyre Alexander Barby Wichart Crowe, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; and Ronald McNeill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. There is also a letter to Robert Gilbert Vansittart, Private Secretary to Lord Curzon (as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs), for Curzon’s information, from Sir John Evelyn Shuckburgh, Assistant Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, enclosing a private letter to Shuckburgh from Sir Henry Dobbs, High Commissioner for Iraq, regarding the political situation in Iraq.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 95; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.