MESOPOTAMIA CAMPAIGN.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16225, 4 July 1918, Page 7

MESOPOTAMIA CAMPAIGN.

AN INTERESTING NARRATIVE. BRIGADIER-GENERAL ANDREWS OBSERVATIONS.

An extremely interesting story of British operations in Mesopotamia was relatod to a representative of "The Press" last night by Brigadier-General Andrew C.M.G., who has just arrived in Christchurch on leave from the Mesopotamian front. Brigadier-General Andrew is well known to a wide circle of friends in Christchurch, having been born in Sydenham, and spent a great portion of iiis life in the city. He has seen about thirty years' service with tho Army in Inuia, and shortly atter tho outbreak of war left Christchurch, where hp was on leave, and took command of his regiment, tho 114 th Infantry, at Calcutta. After a few weeks the ltegimont was ordered to Punjab, and tiience to the north-west frontier, where it took part in operations at Mirenshah. Tneso wer© conducted by General Townshend, who was afterwards captured at Kut. , GENERAL TOWNSHEND. General Andrew knew General Townshend very well, and stated that he was probably one of tho greatest students of war in the British Army, spending two or three hours daily in poring over maps and studying the campaigns of tho past. Ho expressed the opinion that lie was probably one of tho greatest soldiers we had, and that his capture was a severe loss to us. But for it he would probably have been given a high command on the Western front. So far as ho was able to gather from conversations with Armenians and Turks, he said, General Townshend and his fellow-prisonors of war in Turkey were beiji'g treated as well as oould Be expected. A gunner of tho Notts Battory, who had been taken prisoner when Kut was captured, and who escaped from a British prison camp near Nisibin in January last, disguised as an Armenian, crossed tho desert between Nisibin and the Euphrates, a distance of two hundred miles, and reported at General Androw's headquarters in February, stated that the British prisoners were all being well treated by the Turks. The party to which ho belonged hid been employed for som© months in railway construction on tho AleppoNisibin railway, and were well fed and fairly wel] clothed. ILL-TREATED ARMENIANS. The gunner spok© highly of the hospitality ©xtended to him by the Bedouin Arabs during his journoy across the desert, but stated that tho Armenians in that part of .Turkey and Asia were in a terrible plight. An impression existed in that part of the world that although tho Turks disliked the Armenians intensely, partly because of their religion, and partly bocause of their being so successful in business, they had not always boen gfailty of tho terrible atrocities attributed to them. A doctor who had recently escaped from Diabekr, a large town in Asia Minor, recorded that he saw a large party or Armenian men and women done to death by the Arabs, under peculiarly revolting circumstances. Hundreds of Armenian men and women, driven like sheep, passed through the town wherein he was concealed. Aware of the dreadful fate which awaited them, many threw their children to tho inhabitants as they passed through. . A few minutes later the sound of firing in the neighbouring desert, the shouting of the Arabs, and a miscellany of distressing sounds betokened the terrible fate which had overtaken tho band of Armenians.

ACTUAL OPERATIONS. From the north-west frontier, General Andrew's regiment was transferred to Mesopotamia in tho latter part of 1916, and camped on the right bank of the Euphrates, about ten miles from a place celebrated in biblical history, Ur, of tho Chaldees. Tho regiment took part in several engagements with tho Arabs, who are found in largo, numbers between tho Euphrates and the Tigris, and who are well armed with modern weapons. "As a general rule," added the General, "the Arab in front of us is antagonistic, and the one behind us is friendly." They are a fine, manly race, and uudobutediy redoubtable opponents. With the capture of Kut and the occupation of Bagdad, the whole tif the Arabs in Mesopotamia as well as the Persians and Kurds on the northern frontiers have shown a distinctly more conciliatory, and, in fact, in some cases, friend* ly attitudo towards us. With the capture of Bagdad, the Turks fell bacrc to tho north-west, along the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Bagdad-Mosul road, taking up positions at Raiuadie on the Euphrates, Tekrit on the Tigris, and behind the Jebel-Hamrin ("The red hills")- During tho past six months, however, the Turks have been vigorously attackod on these three lines, and driven back to a distance varying from IDQ to 150 miles from Bagdad. The operations on the Euphrates front, in which my brigade took a prominent part, were proba/jly the most successful, resulting in the capture of all the Turkish forces, guns, and ammunition depots on the Euphrates line, together with sixteen German specialist officers employed with them. It is believed now that there is no Turkish force on the Euphrates line between Bagdad and Damascus. All Turkish opposition on the Mesopotamian front appears to have ceased, so much so that during the last four months it had been possible to send very considerable reiiuorcements from I that front to tho Palestine front."

BENEFICIAL BRITISH INFLUENCE. "It is not likely that the British forces , in Mesopotamia will attempt to advance much further beyond Bagdad than the positions already reached, or that any idea of co-operation from Bagdad with the Palestine army is entertained, as four hundred miles or desert-still separate the British forces in Palestine from those in Assyria. Our attention now is being directed chiefly towards tho north, and on tho road which runs from Bagdad to the Caspian Kurdish cavalry in considerable numbers are co-operating with us. The collapse of Russia in this part of the Asiatic world had hitherto _ had little or no effect on the friendly attitude which tho Persians and the Afghans generally maintain towards us. Already British influence m Mesopotamia is producing excellent results. Tho country is moro-quiet and orderly than it has been for centuries, for the million and a half Arab 9, Ar-* menians, and Jews in that country are sottlin<r down to peaceable pursuits, and are working harmoniously together. CULTIVATION. "Hundreds of thousands of acres of land, alter being neglected for centuries, are again being brought under cultivation —so much so that we expect the harvest to produce for us two hundred thousand tons of wheat and barley, which is considered more than sufficient to keep our forces in Mesopotamia supplied without further assistance from oversea. _ At present the land suitable for cultivation is confined, to the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates, water being obtained from native water-lifts, which render cultivation possible only up to about half a: mile from tho river banks. - However, | a great number of from ten to fifteen horse-power hydraulic pumps are being introduced to take the place of these crude constructions, and from practical experience I am or opinion that these will result in doubling or trebling the irrigible land in Mesopotamia, as by their means water can be pumped up to

permit of land of from a mile and a I naif to two miles from the banks being! cultivated. This, I think, is ts much as we shall be able to do for some time, as the native labour available is not sufficient to cultivate a larger a rea, al ™ in fact until four or five more millions or people can be introduced to Mesopotamia, the idea of carrying out irrigation on such a large scale as that proposed by Sir William Willcox la impracticable." PRAISE FOR NEW ZEALANDERS. In conclusion, the speaker said that he would like to congratulate the people of New Zealand on the magnificent efforts they have made during "As one travels round the world,'' ho said, "one hears on all sides the highest praise of New Zealandtrs for the excellent discipline and conduct of the men, and the splendid patriotism shown by all classes of the community has earned the admiration of the British, world." Brigadier-General Andrew was awarded a Russian decoration, and tho C.M.G. at the beginning of the present year for the operations on the Euphrates line. _Ho was promoted to command of a brigade in Mesopotamia in July, 1917. Ho is at prcsont on leave for about a month, after which he will go back to Mesopotamia.