IRAQ’S PROGRESS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20268, 29 November 1927, Page 13

IRAQ’S PROGRESS.

WHERE BABYLON FLOURISHED. Anybody who flies over the valleys o the Tigris and Euphrates in an airplane can look down upon the traces Of a great system of irrigation which was just as wonderful for the ancient world as the Nile dam and the Panama canal are for our modern times. Scores of mounds in the’ desert'mark the 'sites of cities that once flourished and are now hidden by shifting sands. To realise the place.of Mesopotamia- in ancient .times wc. must think of Europe in our own day. It was such a centre of trade culture, and political power that Babylon has become a by-word for materialism and worldly ease. To-day there are only 2,500,000 people in the country which once boasted a population as groat as that of Franco. Bagdad, Bosrah, and Mosul are the' most important centres and yet they are more like overgrown towns than modern cities. Several hundred thousand people are wandering herdshien and the Villages are few and poor. ’ ‘ The fortunes of war- have formed Mesopotamia into the class.A mandate of Iraq. The government is a limited monarchy with King, Feisal on -the throne. The British are in control of the mandate, but they have made a liberal treaty which assures Iraq of autonomous power. Probably the greatest airplane statioi in - the. British Empire is in Iraq, .ani Bagdad has become the halfway station for the air route from Egypt to India.Five years- ago it took" six weeks to travel from Bagdad to Beirut. Persia was still farther off. To-day a traveller can go from Teheran to Bagdad in four days and reach Beirut in,another 48 hours. The military road across Persia is increasing commerce with Iraq and making Bagdad a of overland trffiac. Irrigation, cotton growing, improvement of the herds and agricultural development of all kinds are important problems to be dealt with. River traffic must be improved, motor roads constructed, and the railroad lino completed, so as to join the three chief cities. A modern judiciary system, an efficient department of health, and an adequate school system must bo developed. The greatest needs of the land are for money and trained men. The future of tha country will depend upon the way in which proper leaders can be provided. A representative of the Minister of Education visited the American University of Beirut in January. While talking with him, President Bayard Dodge expressed the wish that Iraq might prosper. The Iraqui visitor turned to him suddenly and said, “The future of Iraq depends upon your university.”