Review of Reviews, 2^'6/06. 



Leading Articles. 



493 



P' 



million horse-power must be sacrificed. The Bri- 

 tish and American Governments are believed to be 

 in negotiation with the object of securing an Anglo- 

 American Treaty to rescue one of the great natural 

 wonders and glories of the planet frum desjruction. 



Fro"t fhi- " Eu^inccri^'^ Magazine' ] 



Map Showing Electric-Power Developments at 

 Niagara Falls. 



elaborately illustrated article entitled " International 

 Aid for Niagara," in the current number of the 

 American Reviru.' of Reviews, places the matter be- 

 yond dispute. The flow of water over both the 

 Falls is 224,000 feet per second, of which only one- 

 eighth or one-tenth flows over the American falls. 

 The Canadian fall is three times as deep and three 

 times as broad as the American. It will not be 

 materiallv injured by the loss of the water which it 

 is at present proposed to abstract from the river, 

 but it is calculated that if 80.000 feet of water per 

 second be abstracted the American fall will disap- 

 pear altogether, and it will be possible to walk dn,- 

 shod to Goat Island. Electrical companies are at 

 present authorised to draw off 48,000 feet per 

 second, and permission is now being sought to draw 

 off 50,000 more. If this permission is given the 

 American fall will perish. 



It is estimated that water-power of the value of 

 seven million horse-power is running to waste at 

 Niagara. Of this two millions could be captured 

 below the Falls, and about two millions are already 

 driving the gigantic turbines which generate elec- 

 tricity for the various Power Companies established 

 on both sides of the Falls. To save Niagara three 



THE RE=CREATION OF CHALDEA. 



A Scheme with Millio.ns in It. 

 In Broad Viezvs for April, Mr. Ernest H. Short 

 draws a glowing picture of what Sir W. Willcocks 

 proposes to do in Asiatic Turkey. The vallevs of 

 the Tigris and of the Euphrates, where once stood 

 the Garden of Eden, are now either desert or marsh. 

 The great barrage scheme which has worked such 

 wonders in Egypt is nothing to what might be done 

 on the Tigris. For it is nothing less than the re- 

 creation of Chaldea that the British engineer 

 proposes to effect. The wilderness with water can 

 be made to blossom like the rose, and what is more, 

 there is money in it, millions of money in it : — 



One million two hundred and eighty thous.ind acres of 

 first-class land are now waiting for nothing except water. 

 To auppl.v them It will be necessary to sjiend some 

 £600.000 upon the Tigris weirs. The reconstruction of the 

 main Xahrwau canal will cost three million pounds, and 

 the minor canals, say. another four million pound* — 

 £8,000.000 in all. At present this vast acreage is valueless: 

 as cultivable land it can be roughly estimated to be worth 

 £30 per acre. To repeat, at a cost of £7 per acre, vou make 

 1,280.000 acres of land, which is at present valuele'ss. worth 

 £38.400.000. Seeing that the price of similar land in Egypt is 

 about twice as much as Sir William's estimate, it is surelv 

 time for enterprising capitalists to ask whetlier a profit- 

 able investment is not disclosed. 



The '■ Ee-rreation of Chaldea " is, however, a far more 

 ambitious scheme than that successfully accomplished in 

 the Nile valley. Briefly, it amounts to the reconstruction of 

 the main irrigation systems which existed in Babylonia 

 before the incursions of the Mongols and Tartars. A suc- 

 cessful attempt promises that millions of acres of land 

 will be absolutely reclaimed from the desert, and from the 

 marsh. For a capital expenditure roughly estimated at eight 

 million pounds. Sir William Willcocks promises 1.280,000 

 acres worth, at least, £30 per acre. In other words, 

 £38,000.000 for an expenditure of less than 25 per cent, of 

 that amount, with the probability of a constant appre- 

 ciation of the value of the land. 



In addition to the desert land higher up the Tigris there 

 is the swampy country to the south, between this river and 

 the Euphrates. Here. Sir William Willcocks estimates that 

 1,500.000 a^res can lie readily reclaimed. At present the arid 

 plains and marshy jungles are dotted with a few cultivated 

 enclosures. Even these are liable at any time to be swept 

 away b.v periodical inundations. Reclamation would entail 

 the cutting of tw-o great dykes, one by the east bank of the 

 Euphrates, and th« other by the west bank of the Tigris. 

 Roughly, the cost may be estimated at £5 10s. per acre, and 

 assuming an extremely low value for Mie reclaimed land, 

 the scheme would return £22.000.000 upon a capital expen- 

 diture of only £13,000.000. 



Mr. Short says : — 



In the meantime, it will Ije recognised to be a thousand 

 pities if an.v dog-in-the-manger spirit prevents a thorough 

 examination into the feasibility of Sir William Willcoclss* 

 scheme, and the construction of the railway from the Medi- 

 terranean to the Persian Gulf. 



If this be so, is this not the very place for the 

 Zionists? Thev would be just next door to Pales- 

 tine, and there would be something irresistiblv at- 

 tractive in the spectacle of the Jews of to-dav restor- 

 ing prosperity to the land into which their ancestors 

 were carried as captives more than two thousand 

 years ago. The scheme as a scheme certainly is 

 much more promising than either the Anatolian rail- 

 wav or the East African Colonv. 



