The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, JULY 23, 1917. MESOPOTAMIA

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9719, 23 July 1917, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, JULY 23, 1917. MESOPOTAMIA

British publicists aro discovering the extraordinary nature of the British conquest of Mesopotamia, and the extraordinary value which it offers to the British Empire. The great Oversea Dominions have their faces set against lAsiatio immigration. The reasons we noed not discuss; the fact alone being what matters, must bo grasped. The fact stands between India and the new Imperial Federation. Let the talk at round-table conferences grow as warm as it will, directly it comes down from the heights of sentiment to the practical question, of the equal status of British subjects, the question of Asiatic migration within the Empire rises up and stands athwart all possible roads of Federal agreement. Compromise, in the absence of territory to receive the expansion of tbe Indian races and give full opportunities for the exercise of their many fine qualities, is impossible —so impossible that it is best to recognise tho fact, wasting no more time over it. That it simply prohibits tho fusion with India, without which federation is a misnomer and the Empire a sham, is tho biggest bed-rock factor in tho Imperial situation. Before tho Empire ideal can bo realised, that situation must be relieved. The conquest of Mesopotamia offers that relief amply, and the growing British Empire should be glad to accept , it with both hands. Thera is no other land within the boundaries of the Empire which offers the scope for the expansion of the Indian races, which stands amply ready in the land of Nebuchadnezzar and the Saracen Caliphs. The climate suits them, the soil is superior in fertility to any soil in the world, and it requires the methods of cultivation to which they are accustomed, with tho irrigation they understand. There is great outlet for the skilled industries in which they excel. And, above all things, i s the reconstruction of the vast empires of old which will ensure employment for the best political and military genius of the races inhabiting the peninsula, which is full of its history. The Arabs are the owners of this country —tho Irak el Arab! of the Saracens —and if fusion is impossible, as probably it is, for no race ever joins with the race of Ishmael, the way of co-operation with them is broader for the Indian races than for any other, for tho similarities which breed sympathy are more numerous and

greater between them than between t!,o Indian and any of the races within tho Empire. iM'esopoca rn i,a—Assyria., Babylona, the Persian Ctesiphon, the Irak or Ara.bi—was from the earliest times the greatest granary of the world, and tho greatest trade emporium. Then tho hoof of the Turks’ horse stamped on it, and since that day it has lost ninetenths of its ancient beauty and all its ancient greatness. It is, however, the richest province of the Turkish Empire, and as such keeps alive—at a great distance —the memory of the wealth and happiness of other days. The Germans have been alive to its importance for many years. Had they been contented with the possibilities wind;' came within their grasp when the Kaiser assumed to himself the title of Protector of Islam. Mesopotamia wouid, with the acquiescence of civilised mankind, have become Germany’s “place in the sun.” Tho Kaiser would have realised the dreams of every conquering genius from Cyrus to Napoleon. His insensate ambition of a Ger-man-dominated world has lost him that prospect. Britain has conquered Mesopotamia. The, Kaiser, belittling the wealth and greatness of a self-cO'-Aa.fl-ed Eastern Empire, dreamt of Mesopotamia as a step towards India and Egypt, Where mortal wounds can be dealt at Britain. Britain lias replied by safeguarding her possessions with the conquest of Baghdad. Haring got the country, Britain discovers that it suits her Empire, ■ freeing her Empire in fact, from a crucial insoluble difficulty. That the good of the country iteelf requires the dispossession of Turkish misrule, history proves by tho contrasting pictures of Haroun-al-R-aschid and Enver Pasha, the one in company . with some of the greatest figures of all history, tho other the worthy descendant of the rulers whoso one instinct was destruction. Tho opportunity is for these reasons great. To seize it the consent of the Arabs, tho people who really own Irak-el-Arabi, is the one thing wanting, and that one thing they will give when the only two candidates aro the unspeakable Turk backed by the destroyer of Belgium, and tho British conqueror with the history of India behind him.

Baghdad is conquered, hut the country will have to be held against the frantic counter-attack which the Turks are bound to make, if not of their own initiative, certainly at tho bidding of Germany. The Pro-Germans in our Empire hare been sniggering and chuckling, declaring the Turkish power still immense, predicting how it would muster, assigning the flood season as the time of Turco-Gornian revenge. The Turks were actually so neglectful that they let tho floods come without .maiding any attack. Then, instead of eating up General Maude and his men, as was due to tho disinterested worshippers of the Blonde Beast, who wished so keenly for this event—they look to seeing the General laid by the lvecl s alongside Townshcnd, the victim of blunderers, egged on by tho Pro-Gorman rabble—those misguided Turks indulge in a Cabinet crisis. And while the Turco-Gennan cause stands idle, tho Russians, who after the Revolution did consult tho feelings of tho Pro-Germans hy withdrawing towards Erzeronm, have had the fatuity to change their minds and, are now advancing from Van and Bitlis. At the same timoGonernl Maude, whom tbe Pro-Gormans have marked for dis-c-race and punishment, lias again been heard from. This time he reports an advance up the .'Euphrates. Apparently there is nothing to prevent him marching uji to Aleppo and the oiiilot of the Amanus tunnel, thus paralysing both the Baghdad and tho Syrian rail-, ways. When he reaches that region, as it is quite possible ho may, the Turks defending Syria at Gaza will have to retreat for luck of supplies, and General Murray will be on the move along the track that Alexander followed out of Egypt to fight Danua for the Pcrsian-Babyloniap Empire. Thus there may bo a converging campaign oP Russians from tlie nortn, of Maude’s army from the east, and Murrains army from tho south. This is the reality which is going to take the. place of tho Pro-Gorman dream of valiant Turks under immaculate German generals, reconquering Mesopotamia with a turn of the wrist—the only thing required in the eyes of these wretched Britishers brought up in Germany and hypnotised there to frustrate anything British. It may he the greatest and most abiding. of all the great conquests of this region.