490 Sir John Jackson [May 28, 



work by a young engineer, Mr. Tabor. ^Ij firm having been invited 

 by the Turkish Government to make proposals for the further 

 carrying out of these works, returning from South Africa by Aden, 

 accompanied by a son-in-law and my daughter Gertrude, I had 

 proceeded, to Bagdad to meet the late Nazim Pasha, the then Yah, 

 with whom I made a contract for construction. This contract 

 being agreed, we took the work over from Sir William Willcocks in 

 the month of February, IDll, and the Hindia Barrage was completed 

 by us and inaugurated by the succeeding Yali of Biigdad on the 

 12th day of December, 1913, well within the estimated time. 



We also cleared and deepened about 65 miles of the Hilla Canal, 

 and carried out other works at Faluja. At Haljbania we commenced 

 the construction of the Escape Works, by which through a canal cut 

 from the Euphrates to a great depression in the ground, water can 

 be held up and reserved, and in the dry months passed into the river 

 again to increase its flow at a point near Faluja. 



In passing I cannot help referring to the pleasant relations I had 

 with, and of the high opinion I entertained of, Nazim Pasha, whom 

 I found so inteUigent, so fair dealing and honourable a man. It 

 was indeed a sad day for Turkey when he was murdered in Con- 

 stantinople to make room for men of a very different stamp. 



Throughout the district in which we worked we found the Arab 

 Sheiks generally favourable towards us English, while it was common 

 knowledge that as a rule the Germans working in connexion with 

 the Bagdad Railway were in anything but fa\'our with the natives. 

 It was in the year 1899 that the Germans launched the Imperial 

 Ottoman Bagdad Railway Company for the construction of a line to 

 link up the Anatolian Railway at Konia with Bagdad and the Persian 

 Gulf. This important railway coming on from Constantinople it is 

 understood has been completed by the Germans to the western side 

 of the Taurus Mountains, and a length of some 80 miles between 

 Bagdad and Sammarra recently opened for traffic. Once we have 

 peace, and the Germans are out of control in Turkey, this railway 

 should be completed across the Taurus Mountains, on to Bagdad and 

 thence to Busra, at ai;y rate, if not further on to Koweit. With the 

 railway completed, and a direct line of only some 450 miles in length 

 fiom Bagdad through Damascus to Beyrout, a huge trade would be 

 opened out for the whole of this Mesopotamia district, and through 

 Busra to the Persian Gulf and the East. 



The total area to be irrigated and put under cultivation proposed 

 in Sir William Willcocks' scheme is estimated to cover not less than 

 1,400,000 hectares, or say three and a half million acres, and there 

 can be httle doubt that any outlay on these irrigation works will be 

 most amply repaid, as in the case of the great works of the Nile 

 Yalley and the Chenat Yalley of India. "Properly irrigated, this 

 Mesopotamia district should become one of the largest and best 

 granaries of the world. 



