MESOPOTAMIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17217, 21 January 1918, Page 6

MESOPOTAMIA.

Whco the history of the world war is written the British campaign in Mesopotamia—sl:eht.ly described by eome as a mere

"side issue" of the war—will (writes the Melbourne Ago) ho dremed little inferior in importance to any other event of these memorable year?.. The expulsion of tho Turk from the region of the Euphrates signifies no less than the rebirth of a nation; it implies tho emancipation of a people who onon. created great empires, who gave tho light of religion -to Asia, and that of learning and science to Europe. It is as if western civilisation had discovered a new land, richer than any other country in the world in tradition, capable of rising once more to eroatness and renown among tho peoples of the earth.

The history of Mesopotamia stretches back to the very beginnings of known time. Thoro k little doubt that, iho garden " planted eastward in Eden" that is described in the first chapter of Genesis lay in the stretch of territory between the Euphrates and tho Tigris, now known as Mesopotamia. " And a river went out of Eden to water tho garden; and from thence. it was parted and became into four heads." tallies exactly with a description of tho Pison, the Eishon, the Hiddekcl. and the Euphrates. Mesopotamia means the "oountrv between the rivers." It is a purely geographical expression, tho countries which it comprehends never having formed a selfcontained political unity. Situated at the heart of the Eastern hemisphere, 'these lands have frequently played a leading part in the world's activities. They have contained for millenniums the capital cities of great world-empires. They have been closely connected with tho most thrilling epochs of history.

The story of Mesopotamia can never be written. Its first page is the version in Genesis of m-au'e first appearance on tho earth. Wo can only know that from the time when man was sufficiently civilised to lcavo records of his life on earth Mesopotamia was the centre of civilisation. It is essentially a land of origins. It was the first home of the Semitic- race, whoso civilisation is the oldest in the world. The Phoenicians, who gave us the alphabet and tho earliest system of weights and measures, originally migrated to Syria from the ports of Mesopotamia. This is the homo of the mighty Nimrod, the earliest of hunters. It is the land of Babylon, the mother of astronomy, to whose ancient system of dividing the day wo are indebted for tho twelve divisions on tho dials of our clocks. Through hundreds of years great empires rose and fell, to rise again. The monarchies of Babylonia, Assyria, Parthia, Media, and Persia exercised a. paramount influence for many centuries over the major part of the world's politics. _ And with tho history of these monarchies _ is connected names'that are synonymous with ancient glories and romance. Kebucbadnezrar made Babylon the' greatest city in the world. Ho extended his military conquests over Syria. Palestine, and Egypt. When Cyrus the Persian shattered the Neo-Baby-lonian monarchy ho found an enormous reservoir to the" north of the capital, into which he drained the great river, and entered tho city through the dry bed of the Euphrates. It was Cyrus who conquered and captured the famous Croesus with his fabulous wealth. It was his son. Cambyses, who brought from Mesopotamia an army that snatched Egypt from the Pharaohs. Darius, his successor, bridged the Hellespont, and was defeated by tho Greeks at Marathon, while his son Xerxes mobilised and maintained in the fioU an army of five million men, gathered from India, Armenia, Persia, and Mesopotamia. He, too. bridged and orossed the famous Dardanelles; ho fought with Leonidas at Thermooylfe; he burned Athens: and only retired to Mesopotamia after his fleet was defeated at the battle of Salamis. Alexander the Great chose the banks of the Euphrates for tho capital city of his contcrmsLated world-em-pire, but 'before his plans were completed ho died at Babylon. Mark Antony failed in is.c. 33 to acquire the Asiatic treasures he sought for in Palmyra, and met with disaster at the liands of tho Parthians. who founded Ctesiphon, for nearly six centuries tho capital of Mesopotamia. Persia and Rome struggled for supremacy in Mesopotamia for nearly four centuries. Trajan, the conquorer of Jerusalem, captured Ctesiphon from the Parthians, and advanced a Roman army for tho first and only time to the shores of the Persian Gulf; but he was driven back before the defence of Ninovch. Mesopotamia was still a glorious country when Khalid conquered it for tho Arabs and Islam. Ten millions of peoplo then flourished in these wellirrigatcd plains, a.nd nine-tenths of its fertile soil was under cultivation. At its height tho Arabian Empire, with Bagdad as its capital, was in extent ltardly less than that of Rome at its greatest expansion, and it lasted longer than tho realm of the "Western Cassars. For more than six cent-irrics Arab sovereigns ruled over Nearer Asia, Northern Africa, and no inconsiderable portion of Europe, from tho Upper Nile to the Blade Sea, and from the Persian Gulf to tho Pyrenees. When they conquered they established a settled administration, which did not rest entirely upon military power; they fostered agriculture, trado, "manufacturer-, irrigation; they had good laws and good judges; they showed a high respect for art. learning, literature, science, and philosophy. They were tho inheritors of that ancient Scmic civilisation, older than Christianity or Mahometanrsm, older even than Rome and Greece, which seemed at one time destined to prevail all round tho Mcditerrranean lands and far beyond them. In the days of Marun-al-Rflshid, and for 200 years afterwards. Bagdud was tho ■wealthiest and most civilised city in tho world. The story of Mesopotamia since the groat tragedy of the Mongolian invasion, is summed up in that historic document, the proclamation issued by Sir Charles Maude to the people of Bagdad when, with a_ British army of occupation, ho rvitched his tents in tho Garden of Eden. "Sinco the days of Halafca your sity and your lands have been subject to the tyranny of strangers; your naici-ces have fallen into rtrins; your gardens have sunk in desolation, and your Forefathers and yourselves have- groaned jn bondage. Your satis have been carried off to war not of your seeking; your wealth has boon stripped from you and squandered in distent places." In was in 1258 that Ilalaka, at tho head of a great Mongol army, cantured Bagdad, sacked the city, burned many of the palaces and public buildings, awef killed a large number of the wihabitHutts. Fbrfcy-threo velars later tho city was again sucked, with horrible bloodshed and massacre. Under the Ottoman Turks tho glory of Bagdad passed away; its papulation dwindled., and ite trade decayed. The ancient wealth of Mesopotamia depended upon a. system of irrigation as elaborate and iifo-giving as that of the Nile Valley itself. Tho Mongols wrecked tho canals and dams and sluices, ■uTaeh had been kejjt in order for three thousand years, and the country fell back to marsh and swamp, or to parched and barren waste, withering under tho pitiless sun. Under Turkish rulo the Garden of Eden has been turned irjto a desert. It was no green and smiling country through which tho British army of occupation marched upon Bagdad. Had the average "Tommy been referred to Biblical history ho would probablv have remarked that it would have needed "no "flaming sword" to drive him out of such an Eden. From the transports on tho river, Mesopotamia would seem a country of rich and luxuriant herbage; bus half an hour's march would bring our array through the growth of tamarisks into great desert stretches of swamp, mud, and sand. Then, the heat in summer is intense, fresh water and shade are unprocurable; pests that fly and pe.sts that crawl make life a burden; the mirage holds out cool promise that tbo desert turns to mockery. • MosiTotamia. to-day is a country of mud. heat, and" flies, n great desert waste of swamp, broken by huge mounds that mark tho places whero once great cities stood. This desert was tho richest garden of the world, and could be rich agaJn. There is no doubt that Mesopotamia _ was once. thoroughly and scientifically irrigated by a system of canals. But for centuries the blighting hand of the Turk has been over the land. All knowledge of irrigation has been forgotten; lawlessness and oppression have driven the- farmer away from the parched lands among tho hills. The city of Bagdad that, in the early days of Haroun-al-Raschid, was to London and Paris what London and Paris are to Sofia and Serajovo, is now a disorderly agglomeration of tortuous streets, picturesque ruins, ragged awnings and crumbling walls. It is inhabited by a squalid and ragged population, sunken in disease and poverty. A few clinging hovels and broken streets, in some casca nothing but the heaped up earth, mark the site of tho once great cities of Damascus. Kirkinya, Razga, Mosul. Ilas-ul-Ain, and Erliil. Under the Ottoman Turks t!n> glory of Bagdad passed nway. Tho Mongols wrecked the canivls and dams and sluices, and the country fell back to marsh ,-rnd swamp, or to parched and barren waste. The Arabs, never wholly subdued, but plundered and oppressed, were dispersed, divided, and incitrd to internicino quarrels. Some went hack to the nomadic life of the desert, some sought an ontlct for their enterprise and commercial interests in Africa. In Nyd tho tribesmen returned to tho old clannish isolation. Tn Lowor Mesopotamia the failure of agriculture, and tha neglect ctd krigation hare

ruined tho land, and changed the locai Arab from a prosperous husbandman into a predatory savage. In Palestine the peasants have toiled on, hopeless and sullen, but with th<>. irrepressible vitality of tha Semitic stock. Robbed, bullied, and dragooned, tho Arabs of the Red Sea coast hiivo chafed restlessly under the Tunosh. yoke. Turkish battailous have been thrown "way your after year in tho futile attempt to make Ottoman Government a reality in that untamable province. Turkish despotism has made Mesopotamia the vaio of misery. Millions of acres of good arable land are overrun with thorns and weeds, indicative of the grossest possible neglect. The whole country has been practically deforested; tho very roots of trees have been sold at 40s a ton to provide fuel for the population. The great River Euphrates became uiinavigibie through tho folly of tho Turks, and the river bed at Babylon was often absolutely dry. In order to irrigate some Crown lands foolish. Turkish officials opened a watercourse eome miles north of Babylon in such a way that tho bulk of the waters created a. new canal and flooded an enormous area of once cultivable land. Thousands of pounds were annually spent oa a feebio attempt ito repair tho damage that was done, until at last a British engineering firm was called in to erect the magnificent barrage which was completed a few months before tho outbreak of war, and stands as a monument to the skill of British engineers. It began successfully to stem the waters of tho flood, and drove back a fair portion of the stream into the original channel of tho Euphrates, restoring prosperity to the ruined gardens of Babylon. The Turks have preserved nothing of the ancient treasures of Mesopotamia, and have left no monuments of their owu behind them, '['here is not a single building—not even a ruin,—a earial, a. bridge, or a solitary tree to which we could point as a worthy monument to the centuries of Turkish occupation. This most fertile region of tho earth, that enriched the inhabited world for thousands of years, has been gradually reduced to dust and ashos, and even the precious monuments of its ancient glories have suffered from tho ruthless folly and vandalism of the Turk.

The authorities permitted the mounds of Babylon to bo used as a_ quarry, and the well-mada bricks of Nebuchadnezzar can be seen in tho older houses Bagdad and tho small towns on the Euphrates. Amid tho ruins of Nineveh stood two great marble monuments of winged" Assyrian lions. The miller close by wanted some stone for the repair of his mill, so he gave a bribe to tho Turkish guardian, and tho marble lion, worth hundred* of pounds, was demolished for a few piastres. Ctesiphon has also suffered from gross neglect.* Forty years ago both wings of the facade were standing by the sides of tho wonderful arch. 15ut tho ruin was of no account to the Turk, and the bricks within reach at tho base were extracted and .disposed of in return for small bribes to potty officials, so that one of the wings eventually gave way, and tho fallen material was used for the paltry structures at Salman Park. Mesopotamia contains many underground rivers of valuable petroleum, which here and there finds its way to the surface. The ridculous efforts made by tho Turks to utilise a minimum quantity of this valuable oil may provide a ludicrous reason for the Turkish claim to a place, in 'this twentieth century, amongst the civilised nations of Europe. Mesopotamia has an evil name as being the home of bubonic plague, which has often spread to other lands from these dreaded" regions, and in 1831 carried off half the population of Bagdad. The sanitary and health precautions of the Turkish officials were" shockingly inadequate. Tho elaborate quarantine arrangements were carried o'ut with the sole, object of blackmailing travellers and filL'ng the pockets of officials. Tho lazarettos were death traps and the hotbeds of epidemics. The Turk ish customs were of a like character. Tho Government Treasury suffered from the absurdities of a system that farmed out the privilege of receiving bribes from merchants and travellers who brought goods into the country. There wcro Custom houses everywhere; tho officials at Busrah. would board the steamers and worry tho passengers for paltry presents. Then, ag&Jn, at Bagdad, another set of officials had to be similarly satisfied, and so on at every large town' in Turkey. A new Governor bought his appointment in Constantinople. On arrival at Mosul, Bagdad, or Busrah hischief concern was to recoup his impoverished purse. The local chiefs, minor officials, and' all those who had paid for his predecessor's friendship, must now hurry ud and bring fresh presents or fall into disfavour and be deposed. A tour of "tne vilayet would be undertaken as eoon aa possible, not for administrative purposes, but chiefly for finding out what means there were of squeezing tho sheikhs and the populace. Tho prisons at such times were filled not with criminals, but with recalcitrant chiefs, who had failed to produce the dues which the Governor had imposed. Tho construction of roads, railways, and works of public utility was impossible by such methods. They took too long to bring adequate remuneration to the promoters, and Turkish Governors were being constantly changed through the appointment at Constantinople of a higher bidder for the coveted post. The average Turkish official found it more convenient to make terms with the ruffians of the empire and the robber bands. Ottoman Government in Mesopotamia, has lived on the rake-off from thieving and brigandage. But a new gardener has come into Eden. As a result of this great war, which was intended to rivet upon Western Asia a militarism as deadening as that of the Soltan and more -formidable. Arabia will be released and revivified. British arms havo driven the Osmauli from Mesopotamia, and Arabian freedom is to be restored!under British protection. Our race has been called into this, the first g-arden known in history, "to dress it and to keep it" —not merely to keep it as a possession, but to 'keep ifc in tho sense of a "well-kept" garden. To help the Arab once again to greatness, to partnership in tbo fruits of the earth, to break the spell of the Turanian destroyer, and begin afresh the great story of Semitic civilisation —can there be any such to-morrow for Mesopotamia.