Frederick Stanley Maude

“ 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. ”

“ Money will be made there, and the Arab, if the past is any criterion, will acquire European tastes, and will want to buy things.
"If the Arab in the fourth century liked Corinthian columns so much that he built them in the desert, there is every reason to believe that he will have similar ambitions again, now that he is to be a free man, able to respond to the high intellectual impulses which have always been a characteristic of his race.
"Baghdad depends for its prosperity upon two factors—its position as a junction of main routes, and its central situation in a very rich agricultural area. ”

“ Many noble Arabs have perished in the cause of Arab freedom, at the hands of those alien rulers, the Turks, who oppressed them. It is the determination of the Government of Great Britain and the great Powers allied to Great Britain that these noble Arabs shall not have suffered in vain. ”

“ Baghdad has the only caravan route from Central Persia, and as the Tigris is fully navigable from Basra, Baghdad is almost a seaport, an important point when one considers that goods come cheaper by water than by rail. ”

“ Our military operations have as their object the defeat of the enemy, and the driving 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 cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators. ”

“ In Hedjaz the Arabs have expelled the Turks and Germans who oppressed them and proclaimed the Sherif Hussein as their King, and his Lordship rules in independence and freedom, and is the ally of the nations who are fighting against the power of Turkey and Germany ”

“ During the last years of the eighteenth century in Northern Mesopotamia, when the country was in a condition of anarchy, tempered by feudalism, the population was more than it is now.
"An increasing population in the near future means that more labour will be available for irrigation works. One does not want to raise false hopes—but there is no doubt that the land is the richest in the world. ”

“ He is convinced that with the removal of the paralysing hand of the Turk, who has for so long kept a strangle-hold on the development of the fertile land and its peoples, will come a great and steady improvement in its fortunes.
"All the merchants in the world will profit," said Sir Mark. ”