THE BAGDAD RAILWAY

Hokitika Guardian, 21 November 1925, Page 4

THE BAGDAD RAILWAY

OPENING A NEW LINE. An interesting commentary on the Mosul question is afforded by the fact that the new railway to Kirkuk was opened for passenger traffic recently, after several delay-, slates the 1 oiidon correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian." This line oilers through rail eomiuunieal ion between Basra. Bagdad, and Kirkuk, and would cm across the new border of Iraq if the I urkisii proposals for ihc return of the whole vilayet to them was accepted. Work on the extension of the line trom Kirkuk to .Mosul City was commenced this year, in order to find work tor the unemployed and starving tribesmen in the area to the south ol Mosul, whose crops had been completely ruined for the season by the absence of rain and the prevalence of locusts.

When the new line eventually reaches Mosul, it is proposed to tear up the track of the old German “'Bagdad railway." which at present serves Mosul by running up the western hank of the Tigris, and turn the new rail ay into the “Mosul main line.” The reason for this is that the country to the c-ast of the Tigris is a rich agricultural land, whereas that to the west, irrigated in olden times by canals from the Euphrates, is a sparsely-populated desert. The new Kirkuk line is of the metre gauge, in common with most of the lines in Iraq, whereas the old ‘Bagdad railway” is standard (4ft Sjin.) gauge. The latter had been completed by the Germans front Bagdad to Samarra before the war. but was extended by the British to Shergat, the terminus for Mosul City, and the site of the ancient Assyrian Capital of Ashur.