THE BAGDAD ADVANCE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2659, 3 January 1916, Page 6

THE BAGDAD ADVANCE

ASPECTS OF THE CAMPAIGN NATURAL DIFFICULTIES AND TREACHEROUS ARABS A notable descriptive article, the first of the kind (says the "Manchester Guardian"), on aspects of the campaign in Mesopotamia, has been written by Sir Mark Svkes, who recently paid a visit to tho Indian Expeditionary Force. The battle of Kut-01-Amara, to which ho refers, was fought on -September 2729. Sir Mark writes:— A' winding river which is restless in its bed, capricious in its fall, uncertain in its rise, Mid sown with shifting shoals and sands is the solo means of communication between Bagdiid and the sea; it is the inevitable lino of eupplv, advance, or retreat for Turks mid British. On either, hand stretches limitless plain, showing an horizon as level as the sea save for here and there a mound oi ancient _ ruin, a, rare ridge. or faint undulation. This unending plain, howover, must not be imagined to be of completely easy passage, for its faint depressions are swa.-nps of unknown shape with bays and inlets, while at right angles to the river banks run dried canals and cuttings with hard ridges on either hand. As for the population, it is base, seminomadic Arab, cruel, treacherous, ana rascally as the town influence can make it, -j;et predatory with primitive Bedawi instinct. To these peop'e, Turkish corruption, smugglers, and a year's war have brought a wealth of arms and munitions; -without any cohesion or policy they are neither for British nor Turk; on the day of battle they haunt the outskirts of the fight, plunder the wounded and stragglers impartially, harass the retreat of the defeated side, hoist white flags over their tents, and make professions of unswerving fidelity to whosoever' seems to be in the ascendant. Thus, in the present stage, there are three natural factors —the river, the land, and the people. Tho river may ¥ock your advance by a new o.ud unexpected mud bank; the land may Ahwart your plans by an unmapped swamp; the people will not- delay or impede you, but will accentuate every mishap that may befall, plunder your convoys, threaten your hospitals, cut. your telegraph wires, and supply you and your opponents with unreliable information. . Before the occupation of Kut matters were thus: Astride the river stood, the Turks; on the left hank three swamps wore linked by chains of entrenchments traced with every deviced known to the science of the Teutonic engineer; on the right bank the position was continued with equal care and preparation, and so oonforming itself in relation to the bends in tho river as to oblige an enemy endeavouring to turn it from the. landward side, to make a detour which could not be compassed unobserved in the space of one dark night. In this posii tion was firmly established a force of Turks numerically superior, well armed, j plentifully supplied, and supported by a greater number of field guiw than thoso against them. Seven miles in rear of this prepared position lay 'the town of Kut; midway between Kut and the entrenchments the river was spanned by a pontoon bridge. On tho night of September 27 the striking force of the British Army in Mesopotamia lay six miles from tile Turkish entrenchments. On tho night ol' the 28th the British were in occupation of Kut with above a thousand prisoners, half the enemy's artillery, and a.considerable quantity of ammunition in their hands, while the Turkish army was putting as large an available space between itself and its enemy as the river, the Arabs, the swamps, and canals would allow. Amid the din and thunder of tho great war this achievement may pass almost unnoticed, and yet such a battle fought across a level plain in the face of perfect entrenchments, modem artillery and machine guns, in an unmapped country, with rumours of large forces of hostile tribesmen menacing comuuuiications, will, when tilings come to be reasoned out and, proportioned, rank well enough in our annals. Kut the day after its occupation was as Kut of the day before, vet with a difference. The Turks had gone and tho British had come. The British soldier, the first gentleman in Europe or Asia, and his brother the Sepoy, were in possession. . Now neither Briton nor Indian owe any debt of gratitude to the Arab tribesmen who- hare plundered, wounded, mutilated the dead, sniped, pilfered, spied, and betrayed. This digression is necessary to appreciate the manner of the (iccupation of Kut—the Turks had fled in haste, our men, both horse and foot, reached the town soon after they had gone. For tho last week the Turkish commander had been maintaining his prestige by daily, hangings and shootings, and his last act before,leaving had been to shoot six individuals for desertion, spying, or cowardice. Enter the victors; within an hour the women were chaffering milk, dates, and sweet limes, tho merchants were offering . contracts, policemen were patrolling the dirty little streets, a Governor -was established in an office —tired troops were standing in the sun while'billets were sought for them, and, most unbelievable of all, ■ the Arab cultivators were dropping in to complain of a certain horseman who had ridden through a crop of beans, and of a supply and transport officer who had parked his belongings in a garden. If "Frightfulness" is one theory of war, certainly the Briton has another with "Carry on" as the motto instead of "Kultur," and in lieu of the Furor _ Teutoriicus a kind of "Juris Obsessio." So the Arabs eye witH'- uncomprehending looks the bronzed, peaceful British soldiers who talk so quietly to one another, and who, walk about the streets not with the swagger of conquest, but with the staid assuranco of the city man returning from business. These British soldiers, so clean and so cheerful, have carried a wonderful load through this campaign, thev have borne ' heat, vermin, mosquitoes, fever, double duty, heavy casualties in the field; sunstroke, heat-stroke, malaria, and typhoid have exacted a dismal toll, and anyone who coufits the casualties in the various actions, and compares them with the numbers engaged will perceivo that the fighting has in Mesopotamia been as severe, if not as porsisent as anywhero in the war. If the British soldier leads, tho Sepoy has not been slow to follow. "A Heterogeneous Fleet." But it is not only tho soldiers who arc to_ bo considered as working in this campaign. A rivor war _ presumes ships, and ships presume sailors, the Royal Navy and the Royal Indian Marine provide the latter, and the bounty of heaven, the Ottoman Government, and a certain sense of humour which is inseparable from Britishers afloat has provided a. fleet. Handiness and silence have become proverbial in tho Press and on tho stage iviffi regard to a certain service, but in Mesopotamia, whatever may be said of oflicers and men, neither of these qualities can be ascribed to the various heterogeneous collections of metal aim machinery which at present fly-the white ensign or the blue on tho 'Tigris. Tho numbers and construction of the various classes of vessels forming our Hect are secrets which cannot bo divulged ; but since their conimami» > ys do not hesitate to navigate within 100 yards of the enemy, there can be no harm in describing tlio outward nppearlwee of those craft which are familiar.

enough to the Ottoman forces. There are paddle steamers which once plied with passengers and now waddle along with a. bnrge. on either side, one perhaps containing a portable station, and tlio other bullocks for heavy guns aslioro; there arc onc'e-rcspecta.ljle tugs which stagger along under a weight of boiler - plating, and are armed with guns of varying calibre; there is a launch which pants indignantly between battories of 4.7'5, looking like a sardine between two cigarette boxes; there is a steamer with a Christmas tree growing amidships, in the branches of which its officers fondly imagine they are invisible to friend or foe. There is also a ship which is said to have started life as an aeroplano m Singapore, shed its wings, but kept its aerial propeller, took to water, and became a hospital; its progress is attended by a sustained series of detonations which servos it as an escort among tile Arabs, who attribute its method of progress to Iblis alone. And this lleet is the cavalry screen, advance guard, rear guard, flank guard, railway, general headquarters, heavy artillery, line of communication, supply depot, police force, field ambulance, aerial hangar, and base of supply of the Mesopotamia Expedition.