ABSTRACT
THE framework of the Iraqi State is so recent a creation and owes so much to the activities of the first British administration that a semi-historical method of description has been employed in this chapter in order to make clear the peculiar features of the Constitution. The description of the present Constitution and administration will be found on p. 390. Iraq had been a dependency under Ottoman administration rather than an integral part of the Ottoman Empire, and the system of administration used in the central lands of the empire was unsuitable to Iraq. The efforts to apply it made during the nineteenth century (p. 265) were not in any degree successful. This was patent when the British took over the administration of the country. For the most part, therefore, there was no attempt to adapt the Turkish system, and the new-comers had a relatively clear field.
