§ Mr. PRINGLEasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether at any time in 1919 the vilayet of Mosul asked for union with Bagdad and Basra; and whether in that year the people of the vilayet declared their opposition to becoming part of the Arab State?
§ Mr. ORMSBY-GORESteps were taken in January, 1919, to ascertain the wishes of the people of Iraq as to the future administration of the country. In the Mosul vilayet, which had only very recently come under British control, there was some divergence of opinion. The representatives of two divisions (Kifri and Kirkuk) asked for union with Bagdad and Basra. In the third division (Mosul and district) the representatives of certain sections of the population were opposed to inclusion in an Arab State. That was in 1919. When King Feisal arrived in Iraq in 1921, he was received with enthusiasm by the town of Mosul, arid all recent evidence goes to show that the vast bulk of the population desire to remain united with the rest of Iraq.