“A Prophet Hath ..."

Cue (NZERS), Issue 11, 15 November 1944, Page 17

“A Prophet Hath ..."

NEW ZEALANDERS seem to have penetrated, at one time or another, to the farthest parts of the globe. Few, however, can have found themselves iso-

lated for longer, in a wilder spot, than A. M. Hamilton when, in 1928, he was given the task of building a road from Arbil (ancient Arbela) through the terrific Rowanduz and Berserini Gorges, to join at the Persian frontier with a road from Teheran. The road, which roughly paralleled a historic caravan route, was important. It meant that for the European traveller the journey to the capital of Persia was cut from a matter of weeks to a few days, and it eliminated the hot, unpleasant journey via the Persian Gulf. It meant that trade would flow more freely from Persia to the Near East and Europe, and also that it would flow more safely. Brigandage is an immemorial trade in Kurdistan and many an unlucky merchant has lost, not only his merchandise, but everything down to his boots before being allowed to go. On this road, far and away the most difficult section was assigned to Hamilton. It was here, at Arbil, that it left the plains to cross the great J mounutain massif, running up to 12,000 feet, that separates the watershed of the Tigris from the inland basin of Azerbaijan. < The work lay in a historic land. Not

far off, on the/Greater Zab river, the Nestorian Church locates the site of the Garden of Eden. In a country where peaches, apricots, almonds, dates, and many other fruits grow freely, the location seems just and even probable. Coming to more recent times it was to Arbela that Darius, King of the Persians, fled after his defeat by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. Arbela, too, was the seat of Saladin, the Saracen monarch, who so successfully resisted the Crusaders. Even then it was old beyond reckoning. Archaeologists compute by the height of the city mound, formed as it is of the debris of past building, that Arbela is twice as old as any other town now inhabited. From this town, seat of the most ancient civilization, Hamilton started to drive his road that was to pierce the wild mountains of Kurdistan to link Iraq with the equally ancient land of Persia. There were more than engineering difficulties in the task, though they were formidable enough. The whole route of the road was lined with villages that had been the home of brigands since time immemorial. The Kurd, whose country is divided between Turkey, Persia and Iraq, loves none of his overlords and will fight any of them at the drop of a hat. He had long been accustomed to levy toll on passing merchants, as recorded earlier, and there was no reason to suppose he would welcome a fine, level road that would bring not only trade but soldiers and armoured cars. Hamilton had to be engineer and diplomat rolled into one. His first task was to

drive, his road over the Spilak Pass, immemorial haunt of the Kurdish robber bands. Hamilton, however, pitched his tent within a stone’s throw of £he nearest brigands’ village and by sheer personality made friends with the brigand chief. In all the four years that he travelled over that pass, often with large sums of money to pay the labourers, he was never molested. In his book Road through Kurdistan he puts this down to the friendly character of. the Kurds, but others have ascribed it to the tremendous moral impression he made on the tribesmen. His was a remarkable performance. . The only European, he controlled a curious labour force of Kurds, Assyrians, Persians and Arabs with the aid of overseers of mixed nationalities and-comparatively little technical knowledge. Starting with one steam-roller and hardly any machinery, he taught these completely unskilled men the technique of rock drilling and blasting, of road-making and asphalting and

the handling of steam-rollers, air compressors and pneumatic drills, as they came to hand. -During the work fighting was going on North and South of the road, but on and around the road was peace. Occasional murders took place. That was inevitable in a big mixed camp, containing many gamblers and many men to whom the blow habitually came before the word. These he dealt with a small police force. Once two warring tribes shot it out across the road, to the great delight of the labourers, who had a grand-stand view of the show. More than once Hamilton received warnings about tribal difficulties that might have held up his work. None of these eventuated. In his book he says little of how he won the loyalty and help of these, the wildest hillmen in the world. He suggests that as they were in many ways not unlike his own Scottish ancestors of a few generations back, perhaps there was a natural sympathy. But reading between the lines of his book it is clear that he must have impressed them by his courage and won them by his fairness and tact. Since he left, troubles have broken out. The Iraqi official, lacked the personal quality of this New Zealand engineer who kept the peace during the years of road-building. But the road is there, blasted through living rock, a lasting monument to the personal qualities of a New Zealander, who in four years of loneliness and labour never lost his head, never failed in tact or judgment, and without help in the varied roles of engineer, politician, doctor and father confessor, kept the work going to a triumphant end.

This is the second article on the achievements of individual New Zealanders in lonely spots, and tells of the work of A. M.- Hamilton a member of a well-knwon Christchurch family, who, without other European aid, drove through the wilds of Kurdistan, a road whose engineering problems alone might well have caused some hesitation to men equipped with the best equipment and the most skilled of assistance. '- x