EN
Britain was granted a mandate over Iraq to help it advance to readiness for full independence in the San Remo Conference (April 1920) after World War I. In June 1920, an armed revolt against British rule broke out and quickly spread through the mid-Euphrates regions. The heavily armed and surprisingly determined tribes scored a number of early and significant successes. The crushing of the revolt involved besides the cost of lives the expenditure of huge amounts from the British Treasury. Winston Churchill, in taking charge of the Near and Middle East affairs, called a conference to Cairo on March 1921. The questions considered by the conference included the immediate reduction of British expenditure in Iraq with the consequent revision of policy involving 1. future relationship of Iraq to Great Britain; 2. the person of the future ruler of Iraq; 3. the nature and composition of the defence forces of the new state which was to assume an increasing share of its own defence.