SCIENTIST IN IRAK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19766, 14 February 1927, Page 2

SCIENTIST IN IRAK

NEW ZEALAND DOCTOR A COUNTRY OF PEACEFULNESS A young New Zealander who has gained success in other lands is Dr. E. A. Mills, who, after a distinguished, war record and a successful scientific career in England, now occupies the position of Director of Government Laboratories in Irak. Dr. Mills, accompanied by Mrs. Mills, arrived on Wednesday in Auckland, by the lonic on six weeks’ furlough. Dr. Mills is an old boy of Wellington College, and left New Zealand 16 years ago, after taking his science degree, to study medicine at Edinburgh. He had not long completed his studios when the war broke out, and he joined the 12th Division of the Imperial Forces, serving with it throughout the war. On his return to England, Dr. Mills was director of research laboratories at Woolwich, and there made many important pathological and bacteriological investigations into tropical diseases. His acquaintance with this wide subject was applied in practical form when he left in 1925 to take' up his present appointment in Baghdad. This carries with it the directorship of the Pasteur Institute in Irak, and the occupant is in the position of adviser lo the Irak Government in everything pertaining to tropical diseases. Be acts with a staff of native doctors, hit it is he who is responsible to the Government for the success or failure of the laboratories. “Conditions in Irak are on a very peaceful basis,” said Dr. Mills. “There is no trace of the trouble that arose in 1920, the main factors being ihe settlement of the Turkish and boundary questions. ’ ’ “Irak provides an instance of the beneficiant influence of British suzerainty,” he said. “You are probably well aware of the troubles the French have' had with the Druses. In their territory the French have to maintain a huge standing army, which is very often embroiled with the tribes, while in Irak, Britain keeps splendid order with only two small divisions.” While Britain’s prestige in Irak was assured, in view of the comparisons the Arabs made between her rule and that of other countries, it was difficult to know what was going to happen in Persia. Dr. Mills said there was a good deal of Bolshevik intrigue going on in that country. Dr. Mills will spend only six weeks in New Zealand, most of the time at the Southern Lakes. He will then return to Baghdad, by way of Paris, where he will represent Irak at the International Conference of the Pasteur Institute.