BAGDAD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 151, 2 December 1914, Page 7

BAGDAD.

GENERAL BARRETT'S MARCH. (By A. Spence in Dunedin Star.) Bagdad, quaint Mussulman centre, city of the great Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid, is coming into the war. It is the headquarters of the 13th Turkish , lArmy Corps—the command which was to debouch into 'Persia under Giamid Pasha, and perhaps strike at Hindustan. The long ann of the Government of India has been astonishingly quick in countering the blow. On October 9, the High Commissioner reported that successful operations had been carried out by Indiap forces at the mouth of the S'hatt-el-Arab, where the product of a hundred watersheds joins the streamy Persian Gulf. It is one of the hottest of climates. On November 17 the advance had progressed nine miles up the flat country on the right bank of the great river in which the waters of the Euphrates and Tigris commingle. On Saturday last General Barrett's Indian forces hoisted the Hag at Basra, 51 miles further on. Fragrant with memories of "The Arabian 'Nights" as it is, ancient mystic city, it will be weird now to read of modern military and modern mitrailleuses marching on Bagdad. The distance form Brasa, where the Indian troops are, to the city is about 440 miles, following the course of the river. The town sits astride the Tigris, which is •275 yds wide where it passes through. The country over which General Barrett lias to march is extremely low, and at this time of the year subject to extensive floods. Two lines of steamers —one Turkish and one English—run up the river from Basra, and if General Barrett ! ' O'.ild get hold of these he would be I .-tunate; but such good luck is not i • likely, as Ali Rcza Pasha,, the governor J of Bagdad, must have seized these vessels j long ago. j , It is just seven days since the Sheik-ul-Islam proclaimed a holy war, and we ] learn from the cables that it is not ■ catching on in Central Asia 'Minor. It] will fall flatter still if we. get Bagdad, i for this Antwerp of the East is a centre j of Mussulman gossip, second only to j Mecca. The caravans coming from ! Khorassan and other regions in Persia pass through it on the. way to Arabia | and Central Asia (Minor, and nothing i spreads news quicker than the Mussul- : man tongue. If these gossips find the ] English in Bagdad the stock of "Hadji j Mohammed Wilhelm" will slump. I Bagdad itself must be a strange mix-. ture. All the buildings are of furnace- j burst bricks, giving a general ruddy yel- I low appearance to the place. The. old I crooked lanes of the days of the Caliphs ; still exist, often so narrow that two horsemen cannot pass. Conjoined and mingling with this ancient Oriental aspect are vast parks. and esplanades, groves of pomegranates, figs, and date palms. These parks and groves were the j idea of the celebrated Midhat Pasha, I who endeavoured to modernise, the. town' I about the end of the sixties. He even f got to the length of introducing horse j tramways, which run yet. . j The capture of Bagdad will end one f German dream —the .ownership of the J Euphrates Valley railway. The dream j is as old as 1809, and was at first a Russian vision. They wished to buflcl the line, but were opposed by the Germans, who, as controlling some railway interests in Asia Minor, claimed preference. In 1903 the ej'es of England opened to the importance of this line in relation to India, and up till 1908 and after ihero were complications and friction. What will take place if the Turks' territory is partitioned by the Allies at the end of the war is past conjecture, j but the Euphrates railway may yet be- 1 come an .All-British concern.