PORT OF BASRA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 182, 19 November 1941, Page 6

PORT OF BASRA

MAJOR SUPPLY BASE

A "HIVE OF ACTIVITY"

Recent events in the Middle East have brought about a remarkable change in the function and importunce oif Basra, which, from being relatively a back door, becomes o front door for supply purposes states a report recently in the Lon-. don Daily Telegraph. Basra, which stands on the Shah-el-Arab, 60 miles from the Persian Gulf, is now a hive of activity and playing an important part in the Avar.

Palestine, Syria and Turkey can get almost all the imports tliey require via the Persian Gulf. The poirt,. too, can help with supplies fo? Russia.

Basra's port capacity far exceeds what it has yet been called upon to handle. Recent development lias been rapid, and the whole 1 countryside round about is a vast camp ol tents t.o provide accommodation foi the enormous numbers of men need l cd to deal with the ever-growing shipments coming np the Gulf.

Military circlcs say that without Basra's peacetime port organisation it would have been almost impossible to cope promptly with the problem caused by the rush of events fn the Middle East. While there' is almost -no limit to Basra's storage capacity attention is being directed to the provision of quicker means of shifting supplies. Irak's rivers are good waterways to the interior, but in the past the State-owned railways have discouraged owners ot river craft, who could find precious tittle business. The removal of this difficulty will mean a great increase in capacity for transporting supplies north. Other developments will double Basra's capacity to handle 4000 tons daily, so curtailing the time for ship turn-round, and the rebuilding of Uie Kut to Bagdad railway will save days in transit. Basra has become a vital link in the Imperial chain of communications by air and sea. In the Middle East one now finds British products everywhere from Cairo to Istanbul, from Aleppo to Basra.