1915] *on Mesopotamia and Euphrates Valley 489 



ment, which iDrohibited the granting of a concession for such a Hne 

 except to Germans. 



Kherbela is a sacred city which practically no Christians are 

 allowed to visit, at any rate not the mosques, but Mr. Warbrick and 

 some few others of our staff were there in connexion with the cleaning 

 out of the Kherbela Canal, which had silted up, and the photos 

 you will see of Kherbela were taken by AVarbrick. We always, 

 however, kept to the front Mohammedan engineers and supervisors. 



I must tell you a little story of my journey from ^luseyib to the 

 site of the old barrage. Coming from Bagdad, it getting dark, my 

 son-in-law and daughter, who were with me, went on with an escort of 

 two soldiers direct to Babylon, where we were the guests of the 

 German explorers ; and the others of our party, Mr. Eady, Fuad Bey, 

 and myself proceeded to Museyib. The night was pitch dark — I 

 never remember a darker one — and about eight o'clock we arrived at 

 Museyib, when our two Turkish soldiers declined to go any further, 

 under the excuse that the river was too dark, so I decided that if we 

 could get two Arab boatmen, the three of us would venture down 

 the river without any escort, ^\e had been told that going down 

 the river from Museyib we were safe to go with the stream until we 

 saw a red hght in the office of Sir William Willcocks' assistant, but 

 they had not told us that this office was situated below the falls of 

 the old barrage. On we went for a long time without seeing a light 

 or yet the banks of the river. I then insisted that we should get 

 near the one shore, which we did and shortly afterwards saw the 

 light. Then, feeling safer, on we went, but it was fortunate that 

 we were within a few feet of the one bank, for we shortly heard 

 a fall of water. I reached out and gripped the bank, to find the 

 following morning that we had been within about eighty feet of the 

 falls of the Euphrates over the old barrage. I need hardly say our 

 language used was pretty strong when we found we had not been 

 warned that the light was below the barrage and not above it. 



I will now refer generally to the great scheme of irrigation work 

 got out for the Turkish Government by Sir William Willcocks, so 

 well known in connexion with the early stages of the Nile irrigation 

 proposals, as well as works in India. Sir William's scheme was most 

 comprehensive, and involved an estimated expenditure of some 

 eighteen to twenty million sterling, but as at that time the financial 

 position in Turkey would not permit such large responsibilities being 

 undertaken, it was considered the proper plan to only proceed in the 

 first instance bit by bit with the construction of the most urgent 

 works. It was in the year 1907 that Sir William was called in to 

 report, and at the end of 1910 he made his report. At the time of 

 my visit to Bagdad Sir William Willcocks with a small staff had 

 already made a start with preliminary works in connexion with the 

 first section of his scheme to be taken in hand — the erection of the 

 barrage at Hindia— Sir William being assisted at the site of the 



