TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 677 



subjects for a cadet's education which hate to he crammed into the exceedingly 

 short course of his military schooling that branch of geography which is embraced 

 by the term ♦ military topography ' finds a very conspicuous place. The short 

 course of a military school will never turn out an accomplished geographical 

 surveyor ; nor does it in any way outflank the necessity for a military school for 

 professional topographers. But it teaches the young officer how maps are made, 

 and instructs him in the use of topographical symbols. It would be well if it 

 could be pushed a little further— if it could teach him how to make use of the 

 maps when they are made— for personal experience convinces me that the apathy 

 shown by many of our foremost generals and leaders on the subject of maps arises 

 chiefly from a well-founded doubt of their own ability to make use of them. As 

 for the broader basis of general geographical instruction which would deal with 

 the distribution of important military posts and strategic positions throughout the 

 Empire, and teach officers the functions of such positions, either individually or in 

 combination, during military or naval operations, it is perhaps better that such a 

 strategic aspect of geography should be relegated to a later age, when the average 

 intelligence of the cadet has become more fully developed. 



Taking it for all in all there are distinct signs of a more general interest and 

 more scholarly standard of thought in the subject of geography. This is probably 

 due to the eflbrts of a comparatively small group of workers at a time of general 

 educational reform, possibly partly stimulated by the disclosures in connection 

 with the late war. 



The methods of further improvement are simple— better teachers and better 

 examining — and for both it is probable that we must look more directly to civil 

 sources than to the tentative effiarts of the mihtary schools. 



The following Paper was read : — 



1. The Geography of Southern Persia as affecting its History, together 

 with a Brief Account of the Helmand Delta and the Great Desert of 

 Persia known as the Lut. By Major P. Molesworth Sykes, C.M.G. 



Southern Persia and Baluchistan lie between the rich alluvial plains and 

 ancient civilisations of the Euphrates, Tigris, and Karun on the west, and that of 

 the Indus on the east. Washed throughout to the south by the Persian Gulf and 

 Arabian Sea, the country maintains a low level for a considerable distance inland 

 and the heat in summer is terrific. Additional disadvantages are the absence of 

 good harbours, and the fact that in the Persian Gulf there is always either too 

 much or too little wind. This coast strip runs back to range after range of rugged 

 mountains, increasing in altitude until the Iran plateau is reached. The fertile 

 zone of upland country is not very wide, and it soon decreases in elevation, sloping' 

 down to the paralysing waste of the Lut. 



The characteristics of Baluchistan are to a considerable extent similar, except 

 that the altitude of the mountain chains is not so great. As cultivation depends 

 on irrigation, the absence of ranges sufficiently lofty to serve as storehouses for 

 snow results in the encroachment of the Lut much farther south. Indeed, the 

 eastern border of the Kerman province is separated from Baluchistan by a section 

 of this desert some 200 miles in width, which is an important factor in the history 

 of Southern Persia. In its east and west aspect, from the Tehran-Isfahiin-Shiraz- 

 Bushire road eastwards, the Lut stretches right across the entire width of Persia, 

 thus separating the land of Iran into two divisions far more effectually than any 

 sea or mountain barrier. To summarise, Southern Persia and Baluchistan have 

 ever been comparatively barren countries, most difficult of access from the coast, 

 and consequently have "always escaped invasion by sea. Owing to the hardening 

 influence of a livelihood gained from a sterile soil, and perhaps still more to the 

 superb climate, a warlike race was produced, which frequently held in subjection 

 the inhabitants of the rich low-lying plains to the west, while more than once 

 the martial hosts of Iran have swept all before them in the plains of India. 



