THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 154, 10 March 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

BRITISH AND TURKS. AT THE BIRTHPLACE OF CIVILISATION. (By W.F.A. in the "Sydney Morning Herald') Twelve months ago the Anglo-Indian forces landed at l'ao, on the Persian Gulf, and shortly afterwards, travelling by land and wat r, they advanced up the Shni-el-Arab and occupied Basrah At this place they were organievd for further advance. At the same time another force was organised to guard the 100-mile pipe-line leading from the Anglo-Persian oil fields to the coast. which was threatened by the Chaab tribe, under bribery from the Turks. It was early tin? year that the enemy advanced up the river to Kr.rna, wh'-ch was soon captured. At the same time the enemy concentrated on the Euphrates, preparatory to attacking Basrah. The British force, after making a sortie, were forced to retire to Shaiba. Returning again, the British forces fought the biggest battle of the campaign at Burjisieh, in which the Turkish army suffered appalling losses. It was at this battle that the Arab forces seemg the utter rout of the Turkish army, turned on the fleeing Turks and slaughtered them ruthlessly and plundered their baggage. It was at the end of last May that the British force started up the '--gris River from Kurna. Small gunboats convoyed the barges of soldiers, while infantry operated through the maril.es, slowly driving the Turks towards Bagdad. ' Amara was reached and taken, while Nasariyeh, on the Euphrates, received tlie same fate. Marching through the sandy countrylying between tie valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, the British force has suffered terrific hardships. With the thermometer at anything from 115 to 12b in the shade for weeks at a stretch, the army marching at night, and fighting in the early morning, suffering the hot days without shelter or water, men dropping by the wayside from sheer exhaustion, was it any wonder that the King telegraphed his congratulations when it was made known that the Turkish rule over Lower Mesopotamia had come to an end, and this rich province was in the hands of the British forces. This army has been fighting in the Garden of Eden. We are told that the birthplace of civilisation, as we know it from Biblical history, was at the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, where Kurna is situated. Some say it was elsewhere, but general opinion reverts to Kurna being the identical spot. The natives themselves say this is so, and point to a certain old tree used as a mooring post for boats, as the "Tree of Good and Evil." The spot is by no means beautiful, and there are none of the luxuries of the ancient Garden. Only the usual groves of cultivated dates are to be found, and then all around is the endless desert. Some distance up the rivers, near Amara, is Ur, of the Chaldeans, and the Tomb of Ezra the Prophet, to which yearly pilgrimages are made by the Hebrews. Further up the Tigris are the ruins of Ctesiphon,, the capita: of Hie ancient Parthian kingdom, which fell to the Romans over 2000 years ago. It is through this historic land of flooded districts and burning deserts that the British force is fighting its way to Bagdad and Babylon. It is i picturesque yet vicious campaign, in which the British force is fighting Turks and Arabs, the treacherous overflows of the desert rivers, and the heat that is only knoun in this region of the world. True, it is but a little war when compared with the great conflict in Europe, but the British force is winning for our Empire the land known as Mesopotamia, which has been in the hands of the Turks for more than 250 years. To-day the British forces camp in the Garden of Eden, piercing the great lost empires of Assyria and Babylonia, the land of Haroun-Al-Rascliid and Alladin. In the country where culture passed over 4000 years ago, British troops fight in the blinding heat, dropping by the wayside, drowning,, a"d starving of thirst. Recent exploration leads us to tne impression that but for the Babylonian Empire there might never have been any science in the world. It seems strange that after 4000 years the country is being won back again to culture at the point of the British bayonet. Yet war is no new thing in this region, x'or thousands of ye:.rs this land has been stained with blood. Chaldeans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Greeks, and Romans have all fought and died in this land—in some cases it has been utter extinction. The Turks, in turn, followed the trail of the 10,000 Greeks, and the mound that to-day denoted the spot where the Tower of Babel reared its height is used as a Turkish fort to arrest the oncoming British forces.

The country is worth winning. Politically it is of great importance to Britain, if only for the reason that Germany has marked the country for herself. For years the dream of a Berlin to Bagdad railway as a means of opening the way to India has been before the eyes of the German people. Victory for the British will mean the end of this great dream. It will also mean the guaranteeing of the safety of the great pipe lines foi the oil which is to lie fuel for the future British Navy. It is not too much to hope that Mesopotamia will again be made to bloom like a rose, though it is questionable whether the system of modern irrigation will ever be as complete as in the days of the ancients. In those days, Uke in India and Ceylon, they were marvels of magnitude and engineering skill. Yet it is quite likely that the writings of Herodotus may again he realised, and "the grain commonly returns two hundred-fold to the sower."

So fnr as wo know the British objective is Bagdad, which is still the picturesque city of the Ea=t, though shorn of much of'the glory of the days of Haroun-al-Raschid. Th e British forces esattered tar and wide, have already conquered nearly 50,000 square. miV;s of this ancient country. Much of u was gained after stubborn and nloody battles against foes having a cempk"..' knowledge of the desert and the nvc and its ways, which our forces have had to learn . The troops have under 'one the greatest hardships, for the c cavm has been the wettest for over 2o years. The rivers have overflowed thenbanks, flooding the great network of canals and level plains lying between, making a great sea of still water, reedy marshes, and in some pk civ swift currents and treacherous eddies. The army has had to advance much of • e way in native, flat-bottomed boats—quite a new thing in infantry warfare. Away from the flooded ar<>ns in all directions is the end'ess desert, hot and arid, where the thermometer hursts on the first day. where soldiers curse the flood in the morning, and shriek in agony for a mouthful of the precious fluid in the evening, where men and horses drop by the wayside, victims to the terrible agony of thirst. The British forces, sweeping up the vaKey of the Euphrates and Tigris. a>-o

treading the path taken by Ninirod, the mignty hunter, 1200 years ago. Just as tUo Turkish forces at first iell uack on Uaghdad. so the Semites tell uaeli nearly 4000 years ago to escape the harsh "rule ot Cush. Driving his enemies uefore him. Abraham ascended the Euphrates' and went into Caanan, while later the Assyrians also left Cha.idea, founded great cities m thu -M.adi.; iigiv:, and grew as a nation, turning to smite tue Uiaiueuuantl holding them m captivity 000 years. This is ancient history, it is true, yet all the more interesting .-il the present tune. The Assyrian Empire reached from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. This, too, was the land of Nebuchadnezzar, and from here went the forces to capture Jerusalem, and overrun Egypt, lyre was besieged and captured alter 13 years, and thus was "Israel a scattered sheep, first the King of Assyria hath devoured him, and last this Nebu, King of Babylonia, hath broken his bones." The armies of those days Buffered the same trials that are being suffered by our forces to-day. We have stone tablets in the British Museum to-day which tell of Nebuchadnezzar's war against the Elamltes 3000 years ago. These tablets tell us that in the month of January "ne took to the road, the rocks burning and scorching like as fire, from the gardens was burned all vegetation, there was no water in the springs, and all the drinking places were cut olf, and the strength ot men and horses wearied. 1 ' Plac e this record alongside the written account of a British officer in the present campaign, as published in the "Times of India.'': "The word.'hellish' does not convey clearly to the human mind the most appalling time the troops have had. The temperature is 130 in the shade—l mean in the biggest and coolest tent here. Our themometers burst every day, being registered mostly to 120 degrees. On the 9th, after a scrap with the Arabs, w e experienced all the horrors of the desert—thirst. The General said there would be water, but we found the nullah dry. The sun was terribly fierce, and wo were absolutelydone. The order was given to march to the river. Matters became serious, for men were falling down, and every hundred yards we covered seemed blacker and blacker. We could go no farther, so the cavalry went for the water. The sights I saw were awful. I thought I was to die. This country is a hell of a place for a white man." Water and sand heat and dank chills wet nights nd wet clothes —these are the things which the British army nas to fight, leaving the Turks and Arabs entirely out of the question. Sand-« storms sweep the battlefields. The wily Arabs, on their fleet horses, know none of these discomforts.