LAND AND .WATER 
October 16, 1915. 
Venice, answer all the purposes of social movement. 
For the rest, there is a large and interesting native town, 
and a colony of European merchants who are by no 
means averse from a vicarious residence there. After 
the occupation of Basra it was not long before it was 
found necessarj- to occupy Kurna, forty miles further up 
the Tigris. This was not effected without an engage- 
ment, in which the Naval contingent were con- 
spicuously useful. The protection of Ahwaz on the 
J^arun River in Persia also afforded useful experience 
to our Indian contingents, who once suffered from 
underestimating the strength of a tribal gathering. 
Fierce Arab Tribes. 
. The Arab tribes of the lower Mesopotamia are fierce 
and fanatical ; they are opportunists (lilce all Arabs) 
ready to take advantage of any chance tliat Allah may 
offer tiiem. They are expert horsemen, but indifferently 
armed. Never having been brought to reason by the 
inefficient Turkish gunners of lower Mesopotamia, 
they are ready to turn on the Turk as on the Christian. 
In fact, a Turkish reverse in this part of Asia is largely 
assisted by their Arab friends. The Turk himself is of 
the same, or better, material than the Turk of Constanti- 
nople. He has no special regard for the sanctity of that 
city, or special reverence for the Sultan as head of the 
faith. He regards the language of Constantinople as 
a bastard tongue, and looks on Bagdad as the centre of 
IMoslem learning and art. Such, at least, were my im- 
pressions after a few interviews witli leading Turks in 
the valley of the Tigris, and such is the enemy with 
.whom our Eastern forces have to deal. 
The physical and climatic conditions of the country 
may be summed up as consisting of extensive floods and 
overpowering heat. The heat of the Persian Gulf is 
sufficiently notorious, surpassing the heat of hottest 
India, if not in registered degrees on the thermometer, 
at least in the enervating and destructive quality of its 
damp oppressiveness. The one King's ship that keeps 
(watch and ward in the Gulf is wont to flee southward to 
catch the Monsoon winds off Muscat in the dog days of 
summer. No sucli possibility exists in the lower Tigris. 
There the thermometer ranges to 120 F. in the shade, 
and from day to day and night to night, during the weary 
summer months (say from March to October), there is 
no escape from the suffocation of its deadly embrace. It 
is hard to appreciate tliis in England. It is not too much 
to say that our heat-ridden soldiers, lying exhausted and 
gasping in the sun-baked tent, or exposed to the pitiless 
glare of the brazen sky as they struggle waist deep in 
flood water, or drag their thirsty bodies over the glaring 
wastes in search of an elusive foe, would give all that 
they liave left to hope for if they might but exchange 
places for a time witli their comrades in the trenches of 
Flanders. Of course there is the reverse side of the 
picture. When the trenches are running deep in the 
mud and slush of mid-winter, then will Tommy in the 
East, for a few short months, be enjoving a delightful 
climate. The heat, however, whilst it lasts, is very fatal 
in Its effects. Only hardened soldiers can stand it. The 
young and inexperienced Territorial (fine soldier though 
he may be) can not stand it, and it is of little use sending 
him to the Tigris country. ' 
Floods and Marshes. 
As for the floods, it mav be doubted whether they 
interfere witii the progress of militarv movement as 
much as do marsh lands elsewhere. Where thev are 
ruF-v °y""o^^s from the rivers thev certainly do not. 
river ZZ "'u''" ^''''' """ "^ '^''"'' ^"d the gain in 
' aepih has proved an unqualified advantage to 
tortuo'sfhf'- 7'" '^'^^'^ -• P^^'^-^P^' tl- -os° 
■ rua% thi. '" '•'". ^^■°'''^- '^'^^ "«°d^ ''^'^ out in Feb- 
Smof^n?. f ." ^"^ ^ '''^'^"^^ of fi^-e miles. The 
TuT^^ '' '''M"^"^"''^ were untenable, and the 
£ to^mor.in\^"-^'°"^ "'"^ "^-'^^ "-"^ of I-- ) 
Ahwi on H-r- ''"'". '°^"^^'''''- i'^omAmara to 
Ahua^, on tlie Ivarun, there is a stretch of about one 
hundred miles of open country, so that the Turks could 
reinforce their troops at Ahwaz from Amara. At the 
same time they withdrew a considerable force still 
further up the river to Kut-al-Amara, from which place 
a channel (the Shatt-al-Hai) runs south, and connects 
BagHdad 
I. 
uy^ 
•^Marshes 
Sc Floods 
Persian 
Rough Sketch Illustrating the Campaign. 
the Tigris with the Euphrates at a point near Nasiriyeh 
about one hundred miles north-west of Basra. 
The Garden of Eden. 
The two great rivers no longer meet at the " Garden 
of Eden " (Kurna), but run to a junction at Magil, four 
or five miles north of Basra. At Nasariyeh the Turks 
massed a considerable force and were joined by a gather- 
ing of Arab fanatics and tribesmen. They then gradually 
moved down over the dry sand and gravel of the desert 
towards Shaiba, which is hardly more than ten miles to 
the south-west of Basra. On April ii the whole Turkish 
force pushed forward, after making a most dashing 
reconnaissance of our. position, and this led ultimately 
to the battle of Shaiba on the 14th. It was a soldiers' 
battle all through, and was won by sheer gallantry and 
determination on the part of our infantry in attacking 
the Turkish trenches. The enemy force probably num- 
bered about 20,000 with 30 guns. 
The Turkish position was a scientifically selected 
line of about two miles in length at the foot of a slope, 
with a second line on the flat plain above, eight hundred 
yards behind, the command being perfect, and the de- 
fence was directed by German officers. The attack was 
made in three lines by brigades at intervals, and tha 
result is now a matter of history. The Turks were driven 
out of their trenches and retreated hastily for fortv or 
fifty miles. The rout was improved by cavalry pursuit— 
not our own cavalry, but that of the' Kurds and Arabs 
of the tribal contingent. Most of the German officers 
were killed. So little has been written or said of this 
most successful action that I cannot resist just a passing 
salaam to that most gallant regiment, the Dorsets, who 
have been well to the front from the verv beginning of 
the campaign ; and to tlie 117th Mahrattas, who, like^the 
Rajputs at Ahwaz, have shown us thatitisnotonlvSikhs 
and Gurklias and Pathans who can fight for 'India. 
Basra was thus completely relieved, and the next move 
up the Tigris to Amara was made in order to secure that 
most important strategic centre from which enemy 
forces could be concentrated on either Ahwaz or Kurna. 
Then occurred the dramatic incident when the 
General commanding (who was a little ahead of hia 
14 
