PROGRESS OF IRAK

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19023, 25 May 1936, Page 3

PROGRESS OF IRAK

DEVELOPMENT SINCE WAR PHTKOLEIIM RESOURCES An indication of the extensive development that has taken place in Irak since the war was given .at Auckland by Lieu-tenant-Colonel J. Ramsay Tainsh, who has been a resident, of the country for 19 years. From 1921 until a few months ago. when Great Britain handed control pf the Irak railways to the Irak Government. Lieutenant-Colonel Tainsh was general manager of tins "department. Besides.its vast petroleum resources, Irak had several industries that, were : of great value, said Lieutenant-Colonel Tainsh. The . country produced large quantities of the finest dales in the. world, there were extensive exports of. wheat and barley, and a considerable amount of inferior wool, .suitable for carpet-making, was grown. From a productive point of view,, however, 1ra.1v.., had been little more than "scratched';'-' on Ibe -'surface, but further.:, irrigation ..". development would 'more and' more re-, ; veal the richness of the territory. . • •

The.;.old military railway lines, had." been converted into successful ebnmier---" cial lines, Lieutenant-Colonel Tainsh said.' At one time the journey from Basra. Irak's only port, to London by steamer took S 3 days. The Beirut-Damascus-Bagda'd motor service had then l>een inaugurated by the Nairn brothers, who came from New Zealand, enabling the journey from Bagdad lo .London to he made by motor and rail in eight days. Finally the Mosul-Aleppo-Slamhonl rail service, developed by the Irak Railways, had reduced the time from Bagdad lo sii: davs.

Another remarkable development, and also a great engineering feat, said Lieutenant-Colonel Tainsh, had been the construction of the Irak Petroleum Company's 1200-mile pipe lines from Kirk oh to Haifa and Tripoli, on the Mediterranean Sea. The lines passed through Transjordania and Palestine, the section lo Haifa , attaining a maximum ..height of 3COCft... above sen level, and a- inaxi-' mum drop .lo IJCOft. below sea love) in jlhe Dead Sea valley. The company was controlled by British, American, Franeh land Dnlch interests. Much was being done in the country in connection wilh education, many fine schools having been established. Every attention was being given to sanitation, While in such cities as Bagdad, modern ideas of planning were being introduced in laving out new residential areas. At Basra one of the finest aerodromes in lhe world was being built-, and at Bagdad, among oilier fine structures, the museum had now become world-famous.