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Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16159, 13 March 1918, Page 6

The action of the so-called Labour members of the City Council in opposing the resolution protesting against Samoa being given back to Germany shows once more how entirely those who profess to speak in the name of labour utterly misrepresent the real feelings of the working class. How many workmen in Christchurch are there who. if they were asked the plain question whether they would like to see the Germans re-established in Samoa, would not realise that this would mean a constant menace to New Zealand? Would they not emphatically, almost as one man,, disagree with the idea of the island being given back to the Germans?

Why Councillors Howard, Hunter, Sullivan, and Wells should be so solicitous lest we should do anything to injure the Germans after the war we cannot imagine. If the councillors in question will read the cable message which wo print iu another column defining the terms which, in the opinion of publicists like Professor Haaso and Prince Lowenstein, Germany ought to demand as a condition of peaeo, they will see that their solicitude is entirely misplaced, and that Germany is quite capable of looking after her own interests. Certainly she will never suffer for the want of not asking enough if she is ever in the position of enforcing terms. The people of the Britioh colonies are apparently to be reduced to the position of serfs or helots for the benefit of the Huns. In common with Australia, New Zealand will bo j expected to furnish our enemies with wool and frozen meat. Tho possession : of a German naval base in Samoa would • of course greatly facilitate the colloc- j tion of such tribute. j

The ingenious cable correspondent who, in default of details of fighting, sends us topographical and historical notes regarding some of the more ancient battlefields which arc again being fought over, has "let himself go" on the subject of Hit, on the Euphrates, •which the British lias just captured. Nebuchadnezzar, he says, here securcd the stono for Bis palaces, and "there aro inexhaustible beds of bitumen which fill the air with the smell of rotten eggs. It is a tradition that pitch from Hit

was used for Noah's Ark and the Tower of Babel."

As a matter of fact, Hit stands very near the boundary between Ancient Assyria and Chaldea. Our troops have traversed the flat alluvial plains on which stood ancient Babylon, and are now entering on the uplands of Assyria, which had Nineveh as its capital. It is possibly true that Nebuchadnezzar obtained stone from the upper Euphrates and Tigris for his palace and other buildings, although the distinguished French authorities, Messrs Georges Perrot and Charles Chipiez, think the difficulties and expense of quarrying and transport were too great, •and that probably such stone as was used came from some part of Arabia. Unfortunately, it is impossible to settlo the question by examining the materials on the spot, because no stone whatever is now to be found on what is believed to bo tho site of Ancient Babylon. And yet wo know that stone was used. Ilercdotus, describing the bridge whicli united the two banks of the Euphrates in his time, says that while the river was bordered with quays of burned brick, tho bridge was built of very large stones bound together with iron clamps embedded in lead. The explanation of tho disappearance of tho stone used is very simple. Being so scarce and valuable as a building material, it has carried away and used again and again for other buildings until it has disappeared.

Needless to say, the building material "par excellence" of Ancient Chaldea was bricks. There are bricks extant bearing; the name of a king who lived about 3000 years bofore Christ. The bricks of the later Babylon period (GOO u.c.) are handsome and neatly made. Explorers agree that the quality is equal to that of the best modern bricks. And for the last 2000 years— in fact over since the destruction ol Babylon—even tho bricks of its walls, temples, and palaces have boon continuously taken away and used for tho construction of cities and villages.

As for the bitumen referred to in the cablo message, it is found in springs on tho Tigris and elsewhere as well as at Hit. It is hardly evei\ used now except in boat-building, for coating tho planks and caulking. In ancient times its use wjls very general in the moro carefully-constructed buildings, and as it was found neither in Greeco nor Syria, it made a great impression upon travellors from those countries. In tho Bible ivc are told that the Ark was "pitched within and without," and of the building of tho Tower of Babel it> is said: "They had brick for stone and slime had they for mortar." Herodotus, describing the way in which tho walls of Babylon were built, writes: "As they dug tho ditches, they converted the excavated earth into bricks, and when they had enough they burned them in the kiln. Finally, for mortar they used hot bitumen, and at every thirty courses of bricks they put a layer of roods interlaced." Enormous strength was thus secured, and tho combination was found very useful for buttresses. It is said that tho remains of such brickwork which have been discovered form such a solid Ihklj- that it "ls very difficult to make au impression on it with a pickaxe.