Daily British Whig (1850), 4 Jan 1916, p. 12

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~ El ~~ pores ok aeln wig. * NG b A bid hire Ne afi the the * the ower Nights re water [And wil blessings." ad 1p of the Emperor, George '- | , came the British and IncianX whe brought us peace and City of Five Roads, the German R. Arabian Nights and the Life-gi TUESDAY JANUARY 41916. vidg " © a or x £8 Sidi : Gateway to 'Middle : An Opportunity for BadD © Foes of A Mrimate _of Bagdad Region 2 : Promise of Pertility But Deadly to Armies Arabs of Desert Are Wi Treacherous Nomads -- Sesfar. "ing Arabs Know Germany . Beaten-~The Gulf is Safe. Lhe campsigos tn' Mecopatamia dit- or beyoud sil words from every other faperation teat has (eken place or is Whely ra tuke place tn (he world's war A fay be celled the Clirderella of Cam Pe igus, writes one ofcer, for indeed "#f past histary avd moderieuglneers Bll tele to be believed, the swanips Kd wagles' of Irak will be changed Within the lire of tlie present ganer- Mtion Into sometlitng as different frow "iliemselves, ax were the ,wmicy and | pumpkin of the fairy story. ® it tre "siigndous ludeed dre the difficulties of campaign of transformation. Tue stp of Aluddin must be rubbed very shard In this laud oti the borders of , din's lsud of Arabia The diMicaities of the British wre of the .. country aud the population eachery and fausticlsw, heat and constantly confront. The ap ach to goutlt Mesopotamia Iles A bh the Fgrafan Gulf, aud the gulf diet is & part of the campaigning. UE Persia are being urged and organ to plunder Bashire, Bander Abbas d Jagk by the erstwhile commercial 'travellers snd' Conswls of Germany. Suge the war began thé hialf-witted 'Persinn fanatic has been deliberately | g OUrRged to assashinate British and ' Sian Vine ew {tals To and check this policy the .war farther towards | Britain must needs de- odles of troops and main: t Charbsr, Jask,- Bushire Power Impressive sldé of the gulf at rein in Arabia agin | of British officers and | have had to be lef to ¥ the forces of disorder ] PAA Which, characteristicaly | 4 the Flun -cliposek' to provoks | But op. the "Arabian of Germany his waned. r folk know. that on the Al MALT" ire 'no more. ' These june "far as Zanzibur ind their way 16 Malabar ® of without sextaut 5 4 LA p ®,. have long VEROWY 'thet tle fag of Cermaiy can. Tot be #how)l spon" the waters of the RL . 50 lony ab tle wir lasts, The word has & abrond---such are the : ihetions. of invihcible Sea. Power >~that. hé whi would trade abroad from the: Arsh 'comsts must be (he Ivignll of tie Inglis, - : From the galt 3 winging jiver: » ; is restiugs incits .-eapricious in its IAL uncertain in its rise, and sown with shirciag Shoals and 'sands, 18 tie bry an of which compinyieation between Bagdad the sea; the inevitable line J Advanee . or retreat, for y .Anglo-Indians, ad, whl iis stariéd history yi 45,000 peaple, the sole goal | ABCQUE- would uot be worth the rch god voyage hd Campaign 1s [Deduyle Ou glthier and from the river rT Hnitless plain. its Is, the phe Among the Con- Mpleted Ruin # querore-- Turk From ith very postion' the history po 0. long, com- he first rul ot 0 the recordy he left, brought Ao' th Hob of the world's ' b yced the idea re les from other "his gomaing-- "the Ten Lost were later to early digging up of he ym families, wed by the or ef the OF Iawlels dnd Ignorant tribesnien | nsular officials In the pro | of the Persian border | thie I AA NA AR AAA A NANA AR AAA AR AKA Ans ~ mpl and théir leaders | -{ to Saladin of i lnlie ravag: Vane: in Arabia nglo-Indjan Troops arm I A a A A A at tn Pe: THE SHORT UTE TO INDIA i 1 ~ The administrators: will find a wondertu! Mesopotamia, lary of vast extent, southwest and west unfty in bounded on (he by the Arabian by Armenia, und eastward (0 'Persia. They 0 of the world's grentes nd Euphrates, wiih their, great tribute and thelr hun dreds' of stregms. e will 'be seen dotted with hun villages. vou Oppenheim, the Ger- man pioneer, counte throe hundred flourishing villages ni two days' march west of Edessa and Harran. In the tiree leading cities of Bagdad, witli Its 145,000 souls, Mosul with 61,000, | and~Mosul and Urfa with 55.000 are natural cen, tres of 'trade apd ready flourishing, there strong Christian European control. The . towns which four thousand Years of war and plun der are on the rivers. Buck from the rivers. is the country of the nomads Sixty tribes 'of one or two thousand rents each and a tot population of about 260,009 now 'roam the plains Fach @ hag "a recoghiz.d camping ground" for summer and another far ther south' for the winter. Most are Arab and Mohammedan Some are Christian of strange unheard of sects that have survived since' the fourth century. Some are not Arab, bit Tur manufacture al At" Urfa, Mardin are the seats of missions under have survived | { WAS (ANDED *, The broad outlines of the couiiries of the middle east tndicate the strategic importance of the Bagdad route to India via the Persian Gulf. Lying he i tween Asin Minor, Arabia, Egypt, Armenie and Persia, the' Bagdad i country with its great river valleys is seen as the heart of the middle east and the focus of its problems, . swauips aré of unknown shape with|one of the most | bays and in while dt right angles |the world. | to the river bapks run' dried canals | Thig difficult climate has great mili {and ancient irrigation ditches and cut- | tary 4nd sgrieult oral significance. Fhe | tings with hard ridges on either hand. | native of India stands this climate A hard country for cdmpaigning in | better .than the natives, for .he is of when you are a sirangeér even at hardier stock and it. ig- almost like | thé hest ' { home. The Indian regiments suffer | less than the British regiments. The | same whl hold true of the Indian. set itler.. It. is far from being a white man's copntry. Why should pot the indystrious Indian, backed up. hy the scientific Britigh administrator, hold the land that his sword will win" - The Rresent population is inadequate, to- tally so, fn numbers and bagkrupt in intelligence, industry und trustworti ness. Mesopotamia once supported a teeming population and boasted great cities. = With security for Nfe and property; with' an irrigation system she will yet do so again. ' British officers report thal the pre- sent' poputation of the land 1s base, somi-nomadie Argh, cruel, treacherous, and rascally ag town influence can make it, vet predatory with primitive | Bedouin Instinct. To these people, | Turkish corruption, German smug- fon and the long war have brougit wealth of arms and munitions. With win the scorching heat is carried out any cahesion- or policy they ure | "past Bagdad to the foot of the | naither for British nor Turk; on the! {mountains of Armenin. Thep in the day of hattle they haunt the outdkiris | higher portions of the Mesopotamian |of the fight, plongder ire ounded and | | plain snow aud ice are not infrequent | stragglers lupartinlly, harass the re {and the thermometer falls as low as! tres! of the defeated side, Lioisi white | 14 degrees Fahreuleit, Demp béat, | fags Over their tents, and imuke pro: {dry heat, the most -extreme heat. # lestatiouy of unswerving loyalty (0 damp milduess, a freesng cold--truly | whoever seems to b> fa the aseendurit A A A A A A ASA AAA and Persians. They in turn logt ta} (ei {Alexander apd his - successors the | | Seleucida who had their capital at BAGDAD RaiLway AS Adtloch and Imtroduced Greek Ways ( io LINE oF 0 ( "and bullt many cities. Once again § Bod: { { Are SAL It would he only frying climates in Climate an Obstacle But the climaté- Tt has the strong { e8L" posible conirasis. The Kiglish | regiments lave had to faie x leat {ot 133 degrees. Falirenheit. In tlie | steppe country, In the lower reaches {of the river valleys nedr the Persian Gulf there are Trequent i visits from sandstonins tliat blow in. from the { West Arabian desert, bringing with fthem a heat that often. reaches 132 degrees Falirenhelt. plus the blinding, choking sand, 'In winter WRF cup rents [row the Persign Gull meet the Lehill eurrents from tHe Enow-covered | mountains of Armenta une enough [ mofsture -restlts to cover even the Steppes wilr green herbage. In mid- | winter the warm air froin the gulf | being drawn up the valleys makes at Mosul a "warm: mildness." In spring de grass on the rolling plains is soon parched So when the sandstorms blo A --- {Menace came. out of the east and by | 130 B. ad ne bn tioush later the irony of fate reek and Rogan times + Pa Hi # . : ! | Graek 4 threstened the/valleys. Sulla " 'M€ Bagdad F ilway pointmg to {and the emperors fpem Trajan won | Yard India hecapc the great line of oua held a precarious grip to the bor | British ddvance through the heart of |ders of Persia and Christianity was! the Turkish Empire on Constantinople. { lutroduced The route via Bagdad may seem the | Islami Qusted Christianity longest way wromud to the gates of | Bauoul and the Golden Horn. A! The new dan; came from across | British advavce from tnig difection | o Arabian Sop. Whereas the wild aI&y seem "like starting to vhop the | the Plolemiss of Egypt had #uuke' to pieces by commencing at always failed to get 'more than booty its tail instead of cutiiug off its heag: aud & temporary hold the organized | But the fact is that with the Ottoman | 4nd fanatical Arabs under the Caliph, | Empire traversed from tne east that © successors of Mahomet, set up atom woull be paraiyied and dying €duid & (aliphaté empire which was long before the capital to jas with more or interruption | ed. It would have cut from ne East until 'Turk. The und ity defenders from Caliphs 'stepped tn in 686 A.D. while | tlieir man power. Heraclius, the Eastern Romen Emper. in this war do not come from Kuro or who ruled from Cod tinople, was ' ean Turkey. That once proud em. disputing the provinces wih Chosroes|Pire has practically been out of 'exist- Second of Persia. Henceforth Islam | ence since the Balkan Wars of 1912.13. replaced Christianity. At the N ene | | m Anatolis--~Turkey in Asia come Counell there had attended bishops | the Lardy fen who have so loug held from Nisibis, Rhesmna. Macedonopolis | Gallipoli. From Asia Minor. Northern and Persia, but only a few strange] Syria, we survived © of all this, Kastern | Parts: ol Arabia 3 > lanity, and 'Mesopotamia awaits | straits of Marmora into Europe. the European and North ' American | ®dvance from missionary. in 1185 the Caliphate fell |& Hritigh Egyp. and then the Mcn- of meu a gols in the 13th cohtury gave Western foodstuffs ty Asia ock from which its civiliza- |The Rritish in coming out never recovered although thie of the east would only follow in the Mamelukes of Egypt finally turned | Vers reads countless hosts them out. - Timur the Great or Tamer. | Advantage the the river country from tes so carefully surveyed 1394.7 By 1516 to 8 since they fell heir: off the capliai | would stop this flow rds the east in [iold-0 2 of : oil "supplies | the direction of Bagdad {to the Tigris delta on would be reac: | the sources of | The Turk- recruits | kowan or Kurd These and their land will be chief problems of the regime which Britain seeks to estab lish Thé condition or these people and of their COUNry represents (he great (ragédy of the COuRtry, the that it hast heen cputinually fhe prey of foreigy: POWErs and never for long the seat of a strong native rule PERSIAN OIL FIELDS Bagdad ' FOF DREdanolights An important, but nowe the less in- cidental; purpose of the British expe ditions up 'the, rigers of, Mesgapotaniia from the Pefsian Gui is heSprotection | of the Anglo-Persian Oi Companys pipe lines info the Persian ofl fields from Saniy: \ pr is virile enough "defend by attack- Ing. Thus any 'faids hy the Turks from their hase ut Bagdad are. fore stalled, The importance of the fields' dnd pipes is that they are 'w sofiree of supply for Britaln's. of] hurning Royal. navy while the ships raperate in. thee Indian "Océan, Swer. canal or Eastern Mediterraneésn, "TUG British Government, inyested $11,004,008 in the enterprise with the sole object of an suring a wide radius of Activity for its battleships despite any temporary ] fret: other The pige ius is I" runs 'south: of party. of the world, very: wisely located. the Karun river which ruts fustward into, Persia, Muay it lias ® river Hpe between it and an¥ hostile riids from It comes ont the east side of the river and thus the wide delta lies between it and attack from Turkish Mesopotamia. The rivers us far i} as the mouth of the' Karun fire conse quently ""certaip to he red on world's maps as Lng as Britdin the power to bold them For. the of the pipe line alone she must the mouths of the Ereat their delta. the has sake hold rivers an Vast Desérts Shrink The Mesopotamian desert gives the illusion of @ofitraetion. Distances éem small until armies attempt to Arch peross. Then the Wek of water quickly Proxes the Peality and heat allds the illusion of + ages delude rhe marchers, The dif culties of campaigning are not to be despised.» PIE he v. SSE FY enjoyed ' Harun-al-Rasecliid relations, is taken' German (amia friendly lutrigte dn modern Mesapo- AAA Nd Leven 'from Palestine and ! they pass across the | An | Bagdad to Damascus by | the gecompanying flow. of Constantinople. | toe b "tesiphon, 3 of Began ai | new | Acmy Battled For Pipe Line | astpess and mir. | Wi MRTlemagne and his wo id ised ds" Justifying | A A Ar AR a NAAN ASA A East . India "in the days of the akRaschi --there lived in the City of dad. : v go "une the beginning to the stories in Arabian Nights," ; They will flud a terri | Bagdad. and heart of the Middle Kast probleny They are the key to India and the of the back ® door 'to Constantinople and | worth Europe. Pighting (0 possess them the Anglo-Indian armies atlewpt to fur » intra-imperial outlet top In jon and to i i the Ottoman Sirehgth at ig \lié city of the Arabian Nights enters into the strategic cal ulations of the War. Office equally with city of the Hoheuzollern or of stantine On to Berlin" is pot in reality significant a rallying cry as "On Bagdad' Berlin its rulers a and -a temporary | problem hy comparison wi prob: | single lem of the great~twin the luvial flats, the the of ('on ns to and are new the rivers, al-| unirrigated and har ren plains, the' rains of , thousand storied cities, the fortress capital, the, from varavan routes. the shif ng and.shift less tribes, the tempestuous hut glor fous. past, the poverty-stricken present and the illimitable future of the Meso potamian vountry Reaching {the dawn of history and teensi possibilities for of Mesopotamia | Gulf pire, lions Hg with the story | As chanhels of communication the | Tigris and Euplirates, already valuable despite their natural defects, invite the European aud the Indian. The two | Mean great rivers have cut for themselves : great deep channels and cannot shift | thelr courses far. The ro. which | {parallel can never furnish sybsti tute for these natural highwavs wien tdredging and dock making are com- | pleted hy British skill and Indi toil | With these rivers a railway in Sio | 1 secondary consideration Werth the { standpoint of Britain and India Bagdad Railway is not a dream but a i nightmare {80 much as a strategic. railway. And { for Britain it is You. strategic at all. | Mesoputamia's natu=al 'outlet is down {the rivers the Persian Gulf which'! ds the | head * {trol of the Mesopolaniia gre fhe i and' thrilling | timeline present European War. British have menace irself of THE GREAT TWIN RIVERS 1S tr {tors w It is not a colonization | Much the projdtted" Bagdad railway. Euphrates ance 4 chapters and, while is, soldiers preseut is boun British the telling. and India the toute to be defended and recent German se: tivities in the direction. of the Persian constituted to the security of Britain's back rte laccess to ludia and of the indian Em- Because need fascinating waterial Advancement India A AL Indian grand object must be sought in"many diverse ways {In many parts of the world Britain could engl h the Middle and Far East which an the poo opportuni In Tebuildifg Bagdad ipa | Inge. Mgsopotamia British aflministra- ange very € German From Koweit a: ould not nee | Constantinople, except perhaps rire re: | ¥til opposite Ba 1 ligious- one. dl The products of the val. | dled on the 'rignd ileys can reach Europe more quickly | from the sister rive and cheaply through the Guif and the | hundred: miles from th Suex canal than overland to Constan | jorimings, of igen. tinople or any eastern Mediterranean line is within reach o Sea haul beats land hau dé. | Ctesiphion, ruine of Greek occu port. cizively in this instance. ba From of the Willcocks 1811-13 Sir from the Recreator William In Willcocks; | miles fresh mia for the Turkish Government aud | of the reported that with modern irrigation | passed installed at comparatively smal' ex pense the desert between the rivers could be restored to its ancient P ductivity and luxuriance is left Always in an Empire Mesopotamia has form. d part ol the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Mace- donian, Syrian, Parthian, Caliphate and Tidrkish Ewpires. Us | ttl the Jaspnamed it flourished by | | Means of a rude system of irrigation | Shall the British or Turio-German | Empire he the next ruler? | above Roman, | of the Bagdad 'Distances Bagdad is nearly 1,000 miles south Feast from Constantinople, 600 miles 'east from the Suez canal, 00 miles northwest from the Persian Gulf, and 360 miles, southwest from the (Caspian Sea. Following the route of the Tigris it 1s 530 miles. from the river nfouth | dad | great Bagdad was founged by the Caliph | aéross Abou Giafar al Monsur abot 762 AD and | ~ of Mosul {na and Antioch. through the | where Britain has no cern, except when. fighting the Palestine fro of fhe Sinai desert r Damascus a ward Aleppo to con line, west i Minor there are oth tthe Aegean coast commercial Italy and Greee | Bressive powers gain fluence there. Through through Bagdad Tigris is furthey on his conquest of the Nile Mosul the ryfns of an by the Assuan Dam, Surveyed Mesopo- | city where behind and pro- | generally westward | hills of the Armenian ranges past Van {and Diarbekir and otlier. cities nade | famous by massacres. | Edessa the valley of the upper | {tes isreached again five hundred miles | 9€sert, From Edessa the line | lr. follp corner | #ndless Bagdad the ismid Euphrates ad which is situa ] thirty wiles awsy | the midst of ¢]_ Bagdad is feur | Of -the valleys fq; e Southeastern At Bagdad the °F the land and the f Seleucia and .Yilayef of the same fofecte Pa Ou. the. w the 1i because But wherein is the timheéliness of the | | story ef The secret Because 0! now in honor retire India must enormous r ty ening ing' of the Bagdad Railway's 0 rough Route--The Back Door to Con. stantinople--Bagdad Itself Con- trols the Hinterland and Persia. develop th d lin runs to Basra and thence follows the N 'northwestward from ti g Pieri {looks to India and. is under the con. | Junction with the \ Tigris. world's greafest sea power. [Sites of ancient ! { There is no natural relationship with | Kerbela the st abylou and modern And Assyrians, Is. followed | Ualiphs selecteq d cities of the times | pagion after Alexander. | ETE ngrthward. the valley | Withil' easy distr lected ynrdl the city Well in from the ¢ 'ay mil fc: the its Sure houses. the Fezzgr, Sy, of Bagdad of the Indian army d up with the struggles land, because a positive ou: Empire, that' story is. dia's loyalt- in the face machinations was desirable' the con: quest and occupation gnd development Bagdad and its copnutry? The 'of the Mesopotamian valley presets s8 18 that of the British ex- | peditions which' with the opening of 'he great war 'fanded ul the mouths of tie Tigris and Euphrates and have ever siuce fought so. persistently to ket and maintain a hold on the hiuter: {land of 'the Persian Gir. is hidden in the statemént that the Is In>no accurate sense an {itself a3 one very reasonable and in | €vitable result of a State of war with (the German and Turkish Empires. The drawing power or Mesopotamia is now as always in its strategic position and in its land. Sine: the time of the 'Monrols--its - efvization hak been negligible. Since the time of the Osmauli Turk ity material nros It Is the war of the'l Empires for a however untold possibilities. The Germa = planned to | make the Mesopotamian valley, the "valley between the rivers," once again by irrigation one or ih world's greatest granaries of wheat. They 'alculated on replacing American, In dian and Egyptian with Nesopotamian cotton, Why cannot the Indian Gov ernment and people do as much or more? Is the' question answered em: phatically by the Auglo-ndian expe, dition -, Tr i nari aa © Britain in Adrianople, Sofia, Nish, and elgrade to Vienna and Berlin. So that. British civil Servants may yet 80 lo Kgypt and. Mesopotamia and In- dia by an all-rail route afte I Signs of the Kaiser who planned to make an Empire to. o in Mesopo- tamia have bee. de fT Always a Capital Bagdad has ans of (the qualifications of & capital for the € sopotamian country, In its usighbor- hood the strong monarchs of ancient times placed theip hsoging gardens, their enormous valls wna wielr trea" Hammurabi, Nebuchad- YIus the Mede, the Persians Alexander and the sites on the. lower stretches of the portion of their the Jargest city capitc of the. e, the wealth- it. has' the impbriuiice, being ce of both rivers, 08st and easily de rule. Bagdad is now LU in the Middle er strategic ached thrée tundred | feusible by itgejr because of the pro to | ductive locality which renders it fn heledf Abe, the depéudent. lexander broke the power | 8broad None can sass rom Armenia Pefsians, dre among the ruing | 88d Asia Minor o, of food supplies from from Eu to { Persia or the Persia Gui Bt Beyond Mosul Mesopotamia proper | Permission of thre holder of ne running | It confronts all w skirts 'the foof-| Uentral Asia, from Turkestan, Afghan At runs direct to the northeast Mediterranean near Issus, Ada. | her cont 'Thence the route ig | Worry abo; interior of Asia Minor | That Ia] particular con-|fronr : Turk, | E0a m' the borders |!o the uns another line | 10Tth (0 Armenia, to- | Persia. will the in nect with the Bag- | Of this city extend of Edessa. nd project @ or some other Constantinople and Uffa or | South of Euphra- | Eubbrates to the south ec r J thencd! A AAA A A mits re "for AgH FR | istan, Baluchistan, India gi ito the Mediterrzpean. Sine aervia it because beyond the 8 the Arabian the iravel- rs, he mist cross mountaing With Bagdad in rol Grea. Britain need not controi cf the hinterland u due course, as fruit falls © (ree to the man who stands at the foot of the tree. West desert, northwesi to Aleppo. au indefinitely into uence of the holder No wonder that And north, upl3 ws the rivers, In Asia | German made barracks aid depots apd er lines running | storehouses and intrenchments stand 'and destined to 2! the foot of its mil Importance when [has been the great pro- | Past of the German increased in. tle base of the Pyrk The main lime runs defense against the in peninsula to Scuta narets and thet it eastern fromtier Dream Empire and ish campaign or land and. India. Faders of 'Eng. . . Protecting India Periia and Bagasd have been gi gst ihseparably connected - hy wince history began. The herdsmen: of the vast and boundless plytgs: of {thé east have always sevmed to need [the farmers of ihe lower Myer Vanueys. | At any rate.they Juve always covered the wealth of the irrigar rme apd the power that Py a po '10 have always found . it ns strong 'nfluence In Pers, Britain is should prove no exception. . {hig rather a gain thax a. | settlements of Ind | should prove & fine i sto keep isians in check to aftse; fluence of the 4 | down t hh Tu { of | Bakdad should thas jening of Britain's post; Middle and Far I > The City of The Cal H 4" Aarot the Just, ruled dus to Gibraltar, Ba | capital, from 786 {solute fairness | made him the of Oriental a great centre tion. ' bade. or mp -- turies. A.D. the under "the suces » | enjoyed a golden i AN \ v *

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