MESOPOTAMIA.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 514, 22 May 1909, Page 5

MESOPOTAMIA.

AN ANCIENT GRANARY TO BE MADE FERTILE AGAIN. " IRRIGATION SCHEMES, (DT TEt.eaiul'H—riirss A 5 soc! fcn t! —I-n rtrtl ntt T,) Oorataminapis, M&y 20. ' Sir William Wlllcooks hns completed ilie preliminary survoys and taking of Ifevols itr Lower Mesopotamia, and will Mport to titb Constantinople! Government witli h' view to, tho reconstruction of the ancient irrigitioh system! ■

i TO RE'dneAtE OMALbflEfl. ..SirWiiiiim VTillbocks his beeh enjaiged ty thb Turkish Government to Supervise ffib ooptoinpmted irrigation and canalisation works in Mesopotamia and elsewhere, ./}■ . 1 . Sir Avilliah, in 190S, surveyed the, country, tihd llpoh his KtUfil to Bombay gave enthusiastic estimates of tho future bf this aneittnt KMnary. His 116W Sppbilittnent will enable him "to devpto hirtsSlf to tlie attainment of tho tlffeiinl of his life,". tho "Times of India" —"tho re-creation of Chaldaea. ' "The nidgnitndo of .the scheino 'may be jhdged from the fact, that rough estimates place tho irrigable iitea at nearly 3,00(1,000 aeres, the expenditure at', sterling, and the capital value; of tho land, when irrigated, at £60,01)0,000. - "Nothing ;5 heided biit iiiohey,' brains and lhbriut tb make tlifc Tigro-Huphfates Valley just SUoh a Mdvillg as the Cherub and Thelmn Canal tolbniOs: Tho desert will blOslike a garden, l n«w cities will riso on the Juifie of the toehibficS of the Assyrinn and Sassanian kings. ' "BaSra Will become another Hamturc or Antwetp, and India.Will find'in tho Tirto'Euphrates Valley a field ,for colonisation 'and. trade, rich beyond, the dreams of avarice."