THIRSTY MESOPOTAMIA

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 6970, 9 November 1909, Page 5

THIRSTY MESOPOTAMIA

IRRIGATION SCHEME TO MAKE THE LAND BLOSSOM AGAIN. RAILROADS AS ACCESSORIES. By telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received November 8, 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, November S. Sir William Willcocks, consulting engineer to the Egyptian Government, who recently made an examination of the irrigation and other possibilities of Mesopotamia, on behalf of the Turkish Government, has prepared his report. This document emphasises the opinion of Mesopotamian merchants that communication between Baghdad and tho Persian Gulf is not what tho Euphrates Delta requires, but a principal market in the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe.

Sir William Willcocks recommends the construction of an 800-milo railway from Baghdad to Damascus, affording cheap transit, besides a profitable traffic iu Persian goods going westwards, and tho conveyance of Central Asian pilgrims to Mecca. This .would also render tho Kedjaz railway remunerative, and by opening up Arabia would attract thousands of European .and American tourists. He estimates the cost of the railway at £2,500,000, and the profit at £IIO,OOO annually—and this before the proposed great irrigation works begin to yield result. The total cost of tho works on the Euphrates and Tigris is estimated at upwards of £1,000,000 each.