MESOPOTAMIA AND THE WAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1455, 5 October 1915, Page 2

MESOPOTAMIA AND THE WAR.

Some interesting facts are given in the September number of the Windsor Magazine in an article on Mesopotamia and the War by J. A. Lee and Harold Shepstone. The writers point out that the total trade of Bagdad for the year 1912, the latest figures available, is given as Of this

amount, however, no less than ,£3,189,597 are imports, and of this sum or some 75 per cent,, is British and Indian. Germany, who has tried by every means to undermine British prestige and secure our trade, has up to the present sent only about ,£IOO,OOO worth of goods annually to Bagdad. True her total imports for the year 1912 are returned as ,£482,505, hut ot this sum no less than £366,780 was building material for the construction of the Bagdad Railway. The principal item in the list of imports is piece goods, a trade which is wholly in British hands. In the year named some 29,939 bales ot piece goods, valued was received at Bagdad. The importers are three British firms and a number of Jewish ones, who understand the requirements ot the market, and are all represented by agents in Manchester. Here, perhaps, it should be added that Bagdad to-exporfs about one-third of the goods site imports to Persia. The total annual quantity of goods crossing the Persian border from Bagdad is said to am omit: to 100,000 loads outwards and 20,000 inwards, car 1 led on camels, horses, mules, and donkeys, an aggregate of about 12,000 tons altogether. In a word the merchant who controls the trade ot Bagdad also controls that of Persia. Nor should it be forgotten that on an average 200,000 pilgrims pass through Bagdad every year en route for the holy cities. It will be seen from these figures how important it is that our influence and prestige at Bagdad must remain unchanged.”