The Road Through Kurdistan

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 70, 25 October 1940, Page 7

The Road Through Kurdistan

FTER the last war a lot of road building was necessary to open up Irak, and its neighbour, Iran, the now official name for Persia. One of these roads was designed to give Persia a new outlet to the Mediterranean. A New Zealander, A. M. Hamilton, a graduate of Canterbury College, assistant Public Works Engineer in Irak in 1928, was put in charge of that section of the road that presented the greatest difficulty. This section had to traverse the Rowanduz Gorge, down which, tradition says, the wild men of the north swarmed, overthrew ancient Babylon and established Nineveh. Mr. Hamilton began his task at Arbil, the Arbela of the Bible, and had to excavate a million tons of rock. Snakes and scorpions and brigands were a few of the incidentals with which he had to contend. His overseers were a: Kurd, a Turk, an Iraqi Christian and a Turkish colonel. The workmen were Persian and Arab coolies and these all had to be taught how to handle the new machinery. Major-General Rowan-Robinson paid a glowing tribute to our New Zealand engineer and his work. Here is an extract: "Mr. Hamilton was at once the leader, the father, and the mechanic. . . New Zealand may well be proud of the work of one of her sons upon a distant border." Moreover, Mr. Hamilton not only built this road, but wrote an excellent book about it

called "The Road Through Kurdistan." _

("New

Zealand Brains Abroad," Bernard Magee and Major

F. H.

Lampen

2YA).