Posted by Sadie from D007090.N1.Vanderbilt.Edu (129.59.7.90) on Tuesday, April 15, 2003 at 9:54PM :
Assyrian Forum
A blast from the past
Posted By: Qasrani
Date: Tuesday, 15 April 2003, at 3:20 p.m.
In Response To: The New Anglo-American Betrayal Of The Assyrians (StarDrifter (Asshur))
If anyone does not agree with StarDrifter, I call your attention to the proclamation given by Lieutenant General Sir Stanley Maude to the people of Baghdad on March 19, 1917, shortly after the occupation of the city by British forces. [It is reprinted in the May issue of Harper's Magazine--I'm telling you people, this magazine is great!] Here's an excerpt of my choosing:
To the People of Baghdad Vilayet:
In the name of my King, and in the name of the peoples over whom he rules, I address you as follows:--
Our military operations have as their object the defeat of the enemy, and the drivinig of him from these territories. In order to complete this task, I am charged with absolute and supreme control of all regions in which British troops operate; but our armies do not come into your ciities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators.
Since the days of Halaka your city and your lands have been subject to the tyranny of strangers, your palaces have fallen into ruins, your gardens have sunk in desolation, and your forefathers and yourselves have groaned in bondage. Your sons have been carried off to wars not of your seeking, your wealth has been stripped from you by unjust men and squandered in distant places....
It is the wish not only of my King and his peoples, but it is also the wish of the great nations with whom he is in alliance, that you should prosper even as in the past, when your lands were fertile, when your ancestors gave to the world literature, scinece, and art, and when Baghdad city was one of the wonders of the world...
But you people of Baghdad, whose commercial prosperity and whose safety from oppression and invasion must ever be a matter of the closest concern to the British Government, are not to understand that it is the wish of the British Government to impose upon you alien institutions. It is the hope of the British Government that the aspirations of your philosophers and writers shall be realised and that once again the people of Baghdad shall flourish, enjoying their wealth and substance under institutions which are in consonance with their sacred laws and their racial ideals....
O people of Baghdad remember that for twenty-six generations you have suffered under stange tyrants who have ever endeavoured to set on Arab house against another in order that they might profit by your dissensions. This policy is abhorrent to Great Britain and her Allies, for there can be neither peace nor prosperity where there is enmity and misgovernment. Therefore I am commanded to invite you, through your nobles and elders and representantives, to participate in the management of your civil affairs in collaboration with the political representatives of Great Britain who accompany the British Army, so that you may be united with your kinsmen in North, East, South and West in realising the aspirations of your race.
-- Sadie
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