POSITION IN PERSIA.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 February 1917, Page 1

POSITION IN PERSIA.

Worst is Over.

(Australia & N.Z. (.'iiblo Assocvition)

LONDON, Feb. 22. In the House of Lords, Lord Ourzon

continuing his statement a's to the t'orition in Persia said the movement reached its maximum in August. The Russians in the north under General 13ara- v toil’ had recovered (the position, and effectively barred tlie Turkish way to Teheran, lit was a strange position to have ‘a great Russian Army now acting as a screen to our Indian Dominions. We have captured most of the German agents in Persia and a more stable government, which is ontriely frien lly to the Allies, has now been established at Teheran. A force of five thousand gendarmarie, under Sir Percy Sykes, are preparing to drive out the brigand camps. The recent Kut successes have materially improved the situfation, hut it is not yet a’ltoglhor free from anxiety. We must turn out the Turks from the Western pants. / There is still some disorder in the hinterland, and the Persian Gulf trade routes have not yet been reopened. “It would he idle,” said Lord Cur--7,0n, “ito prophecy as to the .future of the East, which lias so often been the grave of statesmen’s prophecies, hut. I think the worst is over.”

British Success

LONDON, Feb. 21

Mr Candler, writing from Mesopotamia, says that the losses of the Turks on 13th February included two Brigadier-Generals. The enemy’s pontoons and boats insufficient to get their troops aeion* the river before we dosed in. Later on a storm flooded the country, filling all the trenches with water.