Independent Nation.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 March 1923, Page 4

Independent Nation.

i (liv (J. Ward Price). LA I'SAN.N E. Most recent of all nations to claim the dubious benefits of independence is Chaldea, whose ancient capital, Nineveh was a great metropolis when London amt Lausanne were a riverside forest clearing and a hike village built on wooden piles. Jt is comparatively little known that among our Allies in tiie recent war wore officially numbered tin.se contemporaries ot the lately disturbed Tui-ankh A,men, the A'symChahleans. 1 felt surprised, indeed, at | being addressed in the hall oi a lory modern hotel at Lausanne by a oars man, speaking good English and wearing a morning eri, with the words: •'1 am the ('ommeiuler-iu-Chiot of the Assvro-f.halt'ean Army, (teuere.l A-Jut Petros.” Assyrn-Chal.lean generals, hv all precedents, ought to have long. | buck. j ijiviling beards, and should h- i seen in prolile siaudiim; in a galloping ' chariot. I |,nimed out to the emissary of | Nineveh l'.ow much greater an impresj sion he would have made on the Coaferenee if he had worn liis native dress |,u* t 1.0 photograph of himself in uniform which he presented to me. though i inscribe d in Assyrian hieroghyphics as ] : 'iiilfcipherahle as any palimpsest,; -iiows that the modern military taste , ~| L | ~ ( I1;LI!-S models itself on that ol the french. , , 1 This •■smallest Allied nation,'' winch - is the title that Uciicjul l’etros, who (••nne to plead lheir eau.se at Lausanne t chums 1 r his fellow countrymen. | lives in a mountainous \ -shaped tract i in the north of Mesopotamia between a the River Tigris and the River /ah. S Its people are said to number two mila | lion, and they share I heir territory nicnlv with Kurds, who, though Mahoint ! meilans, are not Turks, and with a d nivstcrious race called b v/idr , v. ho worship l!ic Devil. ■c 'i'lic A -svro-t'hahloans dilfer Mom i- other nal I.nudities in the Middle Last ic ivdich haic inveked ilritisli recognition c of their independent'" in that they as-

tS!( :'is:•!\i s • t!<):!■? etini'.eh In mnin- | it, i| uinllted, without tereijrii In-Ip. Oeneral Petros assure.- .me that 1 In- (li-IVali-il live Turkish division-; du;-- | int; Ills war and that ho is prepared In ■ !:<)!;! hi> mountains uyniiist anyone. | m |eod. |,i- Ims now nolle Ilia leuntli ; a!' fonuallv aiinouniiun ili.il ii ilio l.anj sainns ( onloretlee any deeision ] that infringes tin- indepnmlenee ut tin i A-syro-t luddeans they "ill defend. ■> j uith mnehine nuns instead of javelins, i mid with artillery -ruptured t rum lin | Turks - .rains! v.diicli . von the iremen- ! ,hnis city walls hi t into Nineveh. ! *-f|iu[iiioii with -riant eatajiiil.s -mi |mu lined hv swarthy men-at-arms j would have reared them-ehes in tain