IN MESOPOTAMIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 January 1917, Page 7

IN MESOPOTAMIA.

A COUNTRY OF HISTORICAL INTEREST A captain of tlio Anziie Wireless Squadron writes under date, Mesopotamia. October 20, to the Sydney Daily Telegraph:— There is no country in the world with such a history as Mesopotamia. This land, or the wild upland region i» the north-west of it, was. in all probability, the cradle of the human rate. Here our forefathers first awoke to the consciousness of purposeful activity, and they reaped the fruits of these rich alluvial plaint.

Nobody can fail to be interr-ted in Mesopotamia. To the soldier it is of surpassing interest. Nome of the greatest and most decisive, battles of the world's history were fought on this historic ground, It lias seeii tho quarrels of petty princes in the early days of civilisation; it Ims seen the charges of jMsyrian chariots, and the massed formation of the Persian ho-des. Cities, whoso only relics now aiv a fev, stones in a desert wa-tc, here have been besieged end defended; pillaged and plunderd, now by rival and adjacent States, now by wild barbarians from the steppes of Asia

To the student, too, it i? full c," sign:ficance. Here you may see, as you cicep slowly up the River Tigris, the reputed site of the Harden of Eden; a few miles away to the west—a ruined city—lie the remains of Babylon built round the tower of Babel; before reaching Amara the left bank discloses the drilled tomb of Ezra, the Hebrew prophet, sctiin a clump of palm trec-s. Bv these same waters the railed captives, fiom the Jewish hill country across the desert to the west, "sat down and wept," and the descendants are litre to this day. And just as this country is or interest to the soldier and to the Biblical student so it is also of engrossing interest to tiie student of history. Within i historical times Empire after Eifipire, lcng since passed away, has arisen, flourished, and fallen. Assyria, with the capital at Nineveh, to which the Prophet Jonah was going when, as the story has it, he was swallowed by the whale; Babylonia, with all the magnificence of the city from which it took its name; Persia, with its city of palaces; Susa (Siisha, where Esther wa:- queen), awaj to the north-east, on the foothills of tho I'usian mountains; Alexander the Croat vhose Mieeessor.-; established themselves at S'eleik'ia, opposite Ctesiphon; the Partisans. who subdued Selencia, and built that great capital, Ctesiphon, the audience hall of which alone is represented to-day by a solitary arch. Latoi on, the Roman Empire, and in more modern times the great Mohammedan Caliphate 01' Bagdad. All these vanished empires remind one of the words of that hymn we oft-times sing:—Thy throne shall never,

Like earth's proud empires, pass away, Thy kingdom stands, and grows for ever, Till all Thy creatures own Thy sway. EMPIRES FOUNDED CN' FORCE. All these Empires, as Napoleon said, were founded on force, and sn they perished.' Christ's Empire alone is permanent, for it is the empire of love. The country is now (or was before the fighting here commenced) in the hands of the Turkish successors to (lie Caliphate at Bagdad, and they have had possession for some 300 year.-: It is interesting to note, however, that it was a German historian, in the year 1792, who uioto: "The rich plains of Mesopotamia and Assyria, which were once cultivated by a populous nation, and watered by surprising efforts of human industry, are now inhabited, or rather ravaged, by wandering Arabs. So 'long as those fertile shall remain under the Government, or rather anarchy of the Turks, they must continue desert, in which nature dies for went of the fostering care of man."

Mesopotamia gets its name frcra two Greek words, which mean "between the rivers." These rivers are the Euphrates and Tigris. They rise near, one another i;. the high table land of oppressed Armenia. and flow through the mountains, new through barren steppes, to the country in which we aiv lighting. The country generally may lie divided into Upper and Lower Mesopotamia. The former being the land to the north of the junction almost, efieeteil by the r'.urs near Bagdad, where the soil has little of the natural fertility that it possesses to the south. Thj latter, Lower Mesopotamia, being the exceedingly fertile alluvial country enclosed by the rivers whiclrflow away from each other after Bagdad, making up the quarrel. so to speak, and joining together a-, Qnvnah, above Basrah, This land in times past has been the. granary for ancient Empires, and with modern irrigation and railway schemes it may become one of the greatest giain-],rodueing countries in the world. J'hrt is one result which will follow our cliorts and .sacrifices here. These deserts will blossom as the rose. The bulk of the inhabit',nts consist of Nomad, Bedouin, or Sedentary Arabs; the descendants of the old J'ersitn and Assyrian stocks; and Jews whose ancestors did not return to Palestine after the captivities. The Turks proper formed the ruling class, and t!i> re are also a few negroes.' The religion of the Turks, Arabs, and most of the descendants of the old-time peoples is Mohammedanism.

There are also a number of Christians —Armenians, Chaldeans. Syrians. Greek Orthodox 1 , and Sabians. The latter are a strange but very interesting sect, who claim to be Christian followers of .lohn the Baptist, and combine in their beliefs J wish and Christ ,ian ideas; as well as some relics of the star-worship of the ancient Persians. They are mostly located around Amara. There are a number of cities ?.nd towns, but Bagdad is the largest city of Eastern Turkey in Asia, with a population estimated at about 140,000, of whom some .">.">,000 are .Tews. It is on the Tigris Kivcr, and about 2-1 iniica from tin nearest point on the Ktphfates. Before the war there was a large European ■colony, chiefly British, it fine hospital, French Carmelite Schools, a Jew'.ah High .School, and a branch of the Church Missionary Society.