THE BAGDAD WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2681, 29 January 1916, Page 3

THE BAGDAD WAR

WHAT IT IS FOR MASTERY OF THE PERSIAN GULF I find that many people are very puzzled about the campaign in Mesopotamia (writes Mr. Lovat Eraser in the "Daily Mail"). They want- to know why we British are marching on Bagdad. There are many contributory reasons, but the true ani all-embracing reason is that we are fighting Turkey,, arid through her Germany, for the mastery ; of the Persian Gulf. We have been! masters of the Persian Gulf for 300 years. Our warships had sailed the gulf in undisputed lordship for. fifty years when the Turk first marched down from «>»«» dad and sighted its blue waters. Wo went to the Persian Gulf to protect our growing trade with India from attack from the sea. AVe stayed there because when our Indian Empire grew wo quickly realised that other Powers established on the shores of. the gulf would first disturb and might eventually menace India. , Wo sought no selfish privileges, and we held no territory, but we brooked 110 rival. We suppressed slavery and piracy. Wekept the peace and wo kept all others out. We did these things for the sake of India. The men who fought at Cte&iphoh last week were fighting to maintain British rule in India.

Our supremacy in the gulf has been challenged time and again. From the day when we laid low the fabled glories of golden Hormuz we have had to be vigilant sentinels. The latest, the stealthiest, and the most subtle of our foes has_ been Germany, with her agents disguised as peaceful traders, her Bagdad railway, her cozening of British statesmen, and her agreements which would assuredly have led to our undoing. When the Germans Cams. Had you gone to the Persian Gulf only last year you might have seen at work German "world-policy," the very latest product of twentieth-century civilisation. It is a tale that begins with 1 couple of "traders," who slept on a Persian beach and professed to buy pearl oyster shells, and it ended with a line of German steamers, imposing consulate buildings, and the stacks of steel rails, for the last section of the Bagdad railwaj', which we were obliging enough to smile Upon. The stpry of the Germans in the gulf Went through many phases. Once they tried to i seize an island on the pretext of working its red oxide deposits. They tried, through their friend tho Sultan of Turkey j to get control of the pearl banks, which he had.no power to grant. They tried to persuade Sheikh Mubarak to 'give them twenty square miles on the shores of the finest harbour in the gulf. One of the last episodes happened just a year ago in a little island town. A British officer walked into an office and clapped his hand on the shoulder of a stout and grubby German who called himself a mother-of-pearl merchant. He was just sealing a letter giving details of the first portion of tile British force now ncaring Bagdad.

Consider the latest phase of this keen and little-known struggle for the Persian Gulf. While our army has been marcfimg on Bagdad, German agents,' wit'h stacks of rifles and sacks of gold, have been pouring into Persia- from Turkish territory, along a route just north of Bagdad. They are raising bands of irregulars all over Persia for purposes which are still rather obscure. We sent troops to occupy the Persian port of Buslnrc this summer, for the preservation of order. We withdrew cur forccs afterwards, apparently as <v proof to the Persian Government of our good faith. ■

Observe now the extraordinary sequel. Tho Persian gendarmerie and its Swedish officers have just risen on their own account at Germany's bidding. Sweden disowns her officers and says, in effect, that they have become adventurers. At the city of Shiraz, beyond the coastal ranges, the gendarmerie has seized the

Britidi Consul, Major O'Connor, and the

other male English residents, and carried them into captivity. The leading spirit of this rising is the German Consul, Herr Wassmuss, a notorious fireibrand. When Major O'Connor , was starting for Shiraz ho said he feared 1 he should "vegetate" there ; I . wonder what he thinks to-day.

Persia in the Melting-pot.

Persia is in the melting-pot at last. Russia has sent troops to Teheran. We can hardly avoid taking some further action in. the south. All the German and Austrian consular and other agents in Persia seem to be making war on thoir own account, and they have either bought or grossly deceived the few Swedes left with the gendarmerie.

Bagdad is an episode, though a great and historic episode, and the goal of an extremely, brilliant campaign. My personal view is that wo should, as a matter of policy, have contented themselves with seizing the Euphrates and Tigris delta; hut those omniscient and master minds who control' the war doubtless have good reasons for thoir course of action which are concealed! from humbler men. Presumably they recognise, in any case, that they cannot, while striking at Bagdad, ignore Persia, now in chaos undter German supervision. Though our commitments now extend a full five hundred miles beyond the Persian Gulf, we must nob forget that our chief interests still lie in the Gulf itself. It may be argued that while we are supreme at sea wo can always control the Gulf, but that is not wholly the' case, especially in these days of submarines. The lato Admiral Jlahan warned us long ago that if we let any hostile Power get a foothold in the Gulf we should l "imperil Groat Britain's naval situation in the Farther East, her political position in India, her commercial interests in both, and the Imperial tie between herself and Australasia.