WORLD AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 3, 5 January 1928, Page 6

WORLD AFFAIRS.

A WEEKLY REVIEW.

(By BYSTANDER.)

For the first four or five years after the Great' War closed the British Government was being constantly adjured by friends and foes alike to "get out of Mesopotamia." It has taken some considerable time to perform this feat successfully, but I suppose that the conclusion of a formal treaty with King Feisal the week before Christmas, and the recognition of Iraq as an independent sovereign State, may be regarded as formally marking the close of Britain's official responsibility for "the land of the two rivers." As a matter of fact, the British Government has reason to be well pleased with this solution of its difficulties in the Middle East. For not only was Britain anxious to "wash her hands of Mesopotamia," but she was also desirous of making some reasonable compensation to King Feisal for the very shabby treatment he had received after the war. In spite of his splendid services against the Turks, and the pledges given by Colonel Lawrence on behalf of Britain, the British Government allowed Feisal to be expelled from Syria to conciliate France, and his election to the throne of Iraq by an almost unanimous vote of the people provided a very convenient way out of a rather unpleasant situation. A Dangerous Frontier. But though King Feisal is now safely installed in Iraq, and by all accounts is managing his unruly little kingdom with remarkable success, lie has a great deal of trouble with his neighbours. I'or the western frontier of Mesopotamia marks the eastern limit of Arabia, and the wild tribes of the desert who live by plunder are not likely to accept the new order of things peacefully and tamely. The greater part of Arabia is now nominally controlled by Ibn Saud, the Wahabi chief who is titular Sultan of the Nejd—tlie great desert area in the north of the Arabian peninsula—and has been for the past three or four years King of the Hejaz as well. The revolt of the Hejaz against the Turks placed Hussein, Feisal's father, on the throne of Mecca. But, as readers of Lawrence's great book will remember, Hussein was an obstinate and impossible old man, and his son Ali, who succeeded to the throne after Hussein's abdication, could not hold his own against Ibi» Saud. The Sultan of the Nejd speedily overran Northern and Western Arabia, drove Ali from iv.ecca, and assumed the title of King of the Hejaz, and, as no one seemed likely to supersede him, and Feisal was well bestowed in Iraq, Britain acquiesced in the new succession. But Ibn Saud, though an able guerilla leader, seems quite unable to keep his turbulent Bedawins in order, and the ferocious raids that they have been perpetrating along the frontiers of Iraq recently may compel Feisal to appeal for help, and may thus bring about the active intervention of Britain in the Middle East once more. The Path of Peace. One of the most amazing features of Germany's recovery since the war is the growth of her mercantile marine. In 1914 Germany owned about 5,500,000 tons of shipping. In 1921 her total was only 71 <,000 tons. To-day the official returns 6how 3,500,000 tons, and her merchant fleet is growing year by year. When peace came, the Nord-Deutscher Lloyd Line officially stated that, as it had been "robbed" of every one of its oceangoing steamers by the Allies, it was starting its career all over again, "as from 1857." It has made rapid progress since then, and to-day it owns 840,000 tons of shipping. But it has been far outstripped by its great ival, the HamburgAmerika line, which owns 1,200,000 tons. Nor is the total tonnage the only important fact to be considered. For, as the Germans point out, all their ships are new, having been built since the war, while tlie British ships are nearly all over ten years old. And if the comparison is extended from sea to air, Britain comes off even worse. Fori the German Lufthansa Company owns 140 airliners, linking up "the whole of Central Europe from the Baltic to the Mediterranean," and Britain' has only 20 air-liners operating over half-a-dozen routes in rather intermittent fashion. If this sort of thing goes on, the Germans will soon have good reason to believe that, after all, peace pays better than war. The New Oriental. The Amir of Afghanistan is about to pay a State visit to England, and, as a matter of course, he will be the guest of King George at Buckingham Palace. It is understood that he intends to make an extensive tour of the industrial areas, and that cotton mills, iron foundries, and steel works will occupy his attention largely. If all this is true, Amanulla must be a very different sort of potentate from most of his predecessors. It is a long step from "Abdur Rahman the Durani chief" whom Kipling celebrated in some of the best and most ferocious of his ballads, to this "modern type of progressive Oriental monarch," who, according to the "Manchester Guardian," has determined to adopt the sensible policy of developing his country on his own account, "without a lavish scattering of concessions to foreign exploiters." If Amanulla can really give Afghanistan an industrial and economic system of its own, without mortgaging it to foreign concessionaires, he will deserve well of his country, and ho may inaugurate a new era of prosperity and peace for that part of Western Asia. But whether he succeeds or not, he deserves great credit for making the experiment. Two things, however, he must do to make success possible. He must create something like respect for sovereign authority among his Afridi and Pathan and Abazai tribesmen, who live by plunder and "the law of the knife," and he must keep his Court and capital clear of Bolshevik intrigues. And neither of these is an easy task. Soviet Seasonal Greetings. The people who believe in Bolshevism as a panacea for the world's woes must be hard put to it occasionally to find a satisfactory defence for everything that the members of the Soviet hierarchy at Moscow say or do. Quite recently tho pro-Bolsheviks have been reproving the unregenerate world for describing Bolshevism as irreligious. Well, Marx said that religion is an opiate administered by the capitalist to the wageearner to drug him into insensibility, and the Bolsheviks can hardly refuse to follow their great prophet's teaching in this particular. In any case, there is no doubt about the manifesto issued by the Soviet just before Christmas, setting forth a regular programme of "anti-religious ceremonies and discussions." The people are urged to avoid the priests and to stay away from the churches, and no effort is spared to make the orthodox faith in particular, and religion in general, ridiculous and contemptible. Of course, the Bolsheviks are anti-religious, otherwise they would not be true Marxians. Just in the same way, they are lovers of war and haters of peace, for the doctrine of the "class war" is the root and origin of their social and political system. And so, characteristically enough, at the New Year, the Soviet newspapers, reviewing the events of 1927, linger triumphantly over the Vienna riots and the strikes everywhere, as proof that the "class war" is spreading, and that the revolutionary movement must sooner or later prevail. As usual also, they utilise their gospel of cruelty and hate as an excuse for false charges against Britain, who is accused of fomenting war against "the Soviet, the motherland of the world's proletariat." What hope of peace, social or national or international, can there be anywhere while these monstrous doctrines flourish?