The British are welcomed in Baghdad

Sunday March 11, 1917

Our vanguard entered Baghdad soon after nine o'clock this morning. The city is approached by an unmetalled road between palm groves and orange gardens.

Crowds of Baghdadis came out to meet us: Persians, Krabe, Jew, Armenians, Chaldeans and Christians of diverse sects and races. They lined the streets, balconies and roofs, hurrahing and clapping. Groups of schoolchildren danced in front of us, shouting and cheering, and the women turned out in their holiday dresses.

The people of the city have been robbed to supply the Turkish army for the last two years. The oppression was becoming unendurable, and during the last week it degenerated into brigandage. The mere mention of the British was punishable, and people were afraid to talk freely about the war.

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Edmund Candler

The entry ended a year's fighting. In 1920 Lawrence of Arabia wrote that the Turks had had 400 conscripts in Iraq and had killed 200 Arabs yearly; the British had 90,000 troops and had killed 10,000 Arabs so far.

Guardian UK

: )

subject for study. Too bad so many hate the study.

And much that is evil could be avoided with the benefit of a better knowledge of past experience.