Mesopotamia 1917-1920

Mesopotamia 1917-1920
A CLASH OF LOYALTIES
IN CONTINUATION OF `LOYALTIES, MESOPOTAMIA 1914-1917’

`... You have been called hither to save a Nation,—Nations. You had the best People, indeed, of the Christian world put into your trust, when you came hither. You had the affairs of these Nations delivered over to you in peace and quiet; you were, and we all are, put into an undisturbed possession, nobody making title to us. Through the blessing of God, our enemies were hopeless and scattered... And now ? —To have our peace and interest, whereof those were our hopes the other day, thus shaken and put under such a confusion; and ourselves rendered hereby almost the scorn and contempt of those strangers who are amongst us to negotiate their masters' affairs ! ... If by such actings, . . these poor Nations shall be thrown into heaps and confusion, through blood, and ruin and trouble—all because we would not settle when we could, when God put it into our hands—to have all recoil upon us; and ourselves ... loosened from all known and public interests; ... who shall answer for these things to God?'

CROMWELL Speech,
12th September 1654.