i6 
LAND & WATER 
March i, 1917 
The Value of Kut 
By Sir Thomas Holdich 
VERY little had been heard of military operations 
in Mesopotamia until lately, but" the latest 
news is \ery satisfactory. There has been 
some apparent confusion in the published 
accounts due to the mistaken ai)plieation of the terms 
" right " bank and " left " bank of the Tigris, and their 
situation in relation to the cardinal points of the com- 
pass. Recent operations of the 'British force carried 
out on the right bank, ha\'e been" sometimes east and 
.sometimes west of the village of Kut. The extraordinary 
loop made by the course of the river at this point 
(extraordinary, that is, with reference to any other 
river than the Tigris) lends itself to such confusion, but 
the position is now sufhciently clear. 
On the 1 2th the Turks were driven into their last line 
of trenches in the Dahra bend of the river to the west of 
Kut, and ringed in against the river by the British line 
extending in a cur\e of over three miles in length from 
bank to bank below the bridge of boats at the apex 
of the Shumran bend. Since then they have been 
cleared out of all positions on the right bank of the Tigris 
with the loss of some 2,000 prisoners ; but they still 
(February 24th) retain their hold on that part of the 
defences at Sanna-i-Yat which extends northward from 
the left bank about 15 miles below Kut ; and here they 
successfully resisted our first attempts to carry this posi- 
tion by direct attack. With the right (or \yestern) bank of 
the ri\'er entirely in our hands for seven miles abo\e Kut , 
it seems impossible that they can retain their line of 
communication with Bagdad intact or that a general 
retirement northwards can be long delayed.* 
Kut village is unimportant. A few straggling streets 
wdth a scattered assemblage of Arab huts constitute all 
that can be seen of a considerable grain depot and a 
useful centre for its distribution southwards ; but its 
importance strategically can be fairly well estimated 
from the determined efforts of the Turks to retain it. 
There has been a tendency lately to represent the Pan- 
(lerman scheme (of which the basis is the through route 
from Berlin to Basra) as a fait accompli, since the con- 
quest of Serbia. So long as we hold southern Mesopotamia 
and threaten Bagdad, it is by no means accomplished, 
and our occupation of Ivut stands for its defeat. It was, 
as a matter of fact, more nearly accomplished before the 
war, when an agreement was ratified in 1913 for the 
continuation of the German line to Basra from Bagdad, 
than it is at present, even with the 200 miles of Serbian 
railway in German hands. 
Meaning of the Name 
Kut (pronounced Koot by the Arabs of Mesopotamia ; 
" Kwat," "Kwatta" — hence Ouetta — on the borders of 
Baluchistan ; and " Kote" onlhe Indian frontier) means 
a " fort " or a strong position, and the name is justified 
by its command of the two great waterways southward, 
the. Shaft al Hai and the Tigris. The former enabled 
the Turks to concentrate their forces on the Euphrates 
at Nasrie or Nasariya to the west of Basra at the begin- 
ning of the campaign, and the latter is the recognised 
highway between Bagdad and the Persian Gulf. So 
long as the Shaft al Hai remains navigable (and there 
is never any certainty about navigable channels in Meso- 
potamia) Kut remains as the most important strategic 
point between Bagdad and Basra, and it was imperative 
for the safeguarding of our interests in the south that 
Kut should be occupied, independently of any ulterior 
scheme for the occupation of Bagdad. 
It has now become imperative that we should retain 
Kut for other reasons. We may rest comfortably assmed 
that Basra and the Persian oilfields are now safe from 
Turkish aggression, but it is essential to our damaged 
prestige that we should reoccupy Kut and make it abso- 
lutely clear to the Arab hordes of IMesopotamia, if not 
to the Turks themselves, that our arms are again in the 
ascendant and that they will consult their own interests 
best by acquiescence in the new order of Mesopotamian 
* N.B, — ^This retirement has now (Februar>' 28th) taken place. 
control. Outward and visible e\idencc that we are pro- 
gressing towards final ^■ictory will do more to tran- 
quilise these \measy people than any amoimt of propa- 
ganda amongst them. We may take it for granted that 
Kut , will be retained — but what then ? Surely we 
should insist that eventually our armies should enter 
Bagdad. That would set the final seal to our triumph 
in I\Ie.sopotamia and be a final blow^ to Turkish prestige. 
All would be forgotten were it once known through the 
length and breadth of the Mohammedan world that we, and 
not the Germans, had occupied that centre of the Moslem 
faith. The effect of it would last for generations to come. 
There is yet another consideration which must be allowed 
due weight when the Fates permit us to decide on the 
future of Mesopotamia. We cannot ignore the prospects 
of future wealth and agricultural prosperity opened up 
by the development of irrigation and drainage schemes 
due to the initiation of Sir W. Willcocks, backed by 
German capital and Turkish engineering skill. These 
great works have already been successfully begun, and 
it would be a profound mistake to abandon them. 
With the line to Bagdad completed the agricultural 
output of the southern plains would surely find its way 
northwards rather than to Basra, unless the temporary 
military lines following the valle>^ of the Euphrates and 
the Tigris, which we have constructed, were rendered 
permanent. In that case we should still retain commercial 
control of what promises to be one of the richest grain areas 
in the world. With the Turkish Go\ernment ousted from 
Constantinople and established further south (for it can 
never be totally destroyed), where it can no longer 
wreak periodic martyrdom on Christian populations, 
opportunity may be offered for territorial compromise 
which would enable us to retain at least some of the 
commercial advantages which should accrue from a 
peaceful occupation of ;Mesopotamia whether under 
Turkish rule or our own. 
There is only one more London Ballad Concert at the Royal 
Albert Hall— on Saturdav, March loth. These concerts liaVe 
been an unquaUfied success, and the Hall was crow'ded last 
Saturday afternoon when a splendid programme was gi\'en. 
During the second part encores were permitted, but they had 
to be kept to one, otherwise the concert would never have 
ended. Miss Astra Desmond and Miss Flora Woodman 
divided popular favouritism, though as a matter of fact, every 
item was well received. Messrs. Boosey and Co. arc to be 
congratulated on the outstanding merit of their concerts. 
Those in search of the bizarre will do well to drop in at the 
quaint little theatre in Chelsea, where the Margaret Morris 
dancers disport themselves. As a piece de resistance of a 
varied programme, the production of Angkorr, a weird 
ballet, may be seen under ideal conditions, which enable it 
' to live up to its sub-title as " a harmony of music, movement 
and colour." Whether this essentially new departure from 
the orthodox will ever capture the multitude is greatly open . 
to question, but there is evidently a large public which is 
prepared to applaud and support the enterprise of Miss 
Margaret Morris, who proves herself to be an adept in all the 
arts appertaining to the theatre. 
To-day,, under the auspices of the Aeronautical Society ot 
Great Britain, there will be inaugurated, for the first time 
in this country, a series of aeronautical lectures for the benefit 
of workers iii aircraft industry. These lectures have been 
organised to further the scherne now being urged forward 
by the Government for the purpose of linking up science with 
industry. The Aeronautical Society has started an active 
educational movement for the benefit of those engaged -in 
the aircraft indiistrv, so that the scientific knowledge of those 
engaged may keep "pace with the rapidly expanding require- 
ments of the trade. 
How to drive a Motorcar (Temple Press, is. 6d. net) is a 
hand-book written by the staff of The Motor, dealing with all 
road problems that arise in connection with .motor-driving, 
from starting the engine to avoiding accidents by appreciation 
of the right thing to do at the right moment, and including 
all phases of handling a car. With such a handbook, the 
novice may become an expert in a minimum of time. 
