The Wanganui Herald (Published Daily.) WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1920. THE MESOPOTAMIAN MUDDLE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160737, 25 August 1920, Page 8

The Wanganui Herald (Published Daily.) WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1920. THE MESOPOTAMIAN MUDDLE.

If the cables inform us correctly Britain is likely to find herself involved in another arduous and costly war. The alternative would seem to be a complete withdrawal from Mesopotamia. Already the British public is being appealed to to give its support to any action the Government may take. It is long odds that a war such as this will find no popularity and less favour, even as a matter of necessity, with the British public. On the other hand, withdrawal would be a hurt to national pride, and a most disastrous blow to British prestige in general and throughout the East in particular. The British Government must he feeling rather, in a cleft stick in the matter, for whatever course it takes it will find a solid opposition confronting it. Whatever might be thought about Britain undertaking a military adventure under the guise of safeguarding Poland’s or Ukraine’s independence, or for the purpose of protecting the Indian frontier, there can be no manner of doubt that such an adventure in Mesopotamia would be regarded by at least half the country as a capitalist war. Indeed the present comparatively limited campaign in the Middle East is already so regarded by many people. And British Labour in particular is apt to say that a Government which has let it in for such a situation without consulting it has no right, no moral right at all events, to ask it to bear a hand to pull the chestnuts out of the fire. On the other hand the big financial, industrial, and trading concerns which have investments there will insist on the Government’s duty to carry out the traditional British policy of protecting British interests abroad, for the purpose of safeguarding prosperity at home, while the by no means few people who are genuine patriots, desirous of maintaining the prestige of the flag above all else, will also lend their voice to any demand upon the Government to enter upon a-decisive

campaign in place of the present shilly-shally one. Whatever the point of view there can he no doubt that the present British policy in Mesopotamia is dictated solely and simply by the desire to possess the marvellously productive oil wells there. The British Admiralty has already acquired huge interests, and British capitalists are also interested in this and other industries. And a war on a big scale would be primarily for capitalist benefit, and only indirectly for national advantage. If the trouble began and ended with the oil districts, the problem would be less serious. But to protect the oil measures, the surrounding districts must be controlled and pacified, and these in their turn must be protected from the hostile tribes of districts further outlying still. The work of establishing order becomes, in fact, an endless chain, as the frequent cable references to isolated fights and operations here and there over the wdiole length and breadth of the country makes unmistakably evident. The cables tell us that a really effective campaign will be as expensive as, and. more exhausting than the South African War. That does not overstate the case in the least. The country is as big, and, what is more ominous, much more thickly populated than South Africa. The lines of communication will be equally as long, and transport even more difficult, and where the Boers could put thousands against us, the Arabs can put tens of thousands. It is plain from the recent news that an immensely greater number of troops are required to conquer Mesopotamia. The hostile influence of Turkish and Bolshevik agents will also have to be counteracted. And it will be a heartbreaking work for the medical service, for the climate is far worse than South Africa, and disease far more rampant every year than ever it was in the worst months of the war against the Boers. Altogether, the British Government and the British captains of finance and industry, in their desire to possess the oil measures of Mesopotamia, seem, to use a vulgar phrase, to have “bitten off more than they can chew.”