The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-19

1 The problem of army transport knew nc | gasoline in those days, but still armies
 managed to get about and to make long | marches. The cavalcade also bore the regal drinking cups and washing bowls, dressing table, a low wheeled pleasure car and other luxuries. The army was | played out of the capital by the mu- sicians on double pipes, harps and drums
 It was not always brute strength that
 Non for the ancients; strategy was known. When Cyrus, Emperor of the Medes and Persians, besieged Belshazzar in Babylon he won by strategy. The Euphrates ran under the walls of Baby
 lon and through the center of the city to Which Cyrus had in vain tried to pene- trate. He finally damned the Euphrates
 above the city. diverting the waters else where. The river bed became dry and
 the Persian forces swept in, captured and opened the city gates and thus conquered the city, to the amazement of Belshaz- gar and his followers who the sculptors Of the day say, were on that night en- gagged In revelry. Cambyses. son of Cy- rus. was obviously a chip from the same block He conquered Egypt in a single battle by driving before his army a troop or cats, dogs and other animals which the Egyptians held sacred. His Egyptian opponents were afraid to fire on these holy beasts.
 War in those days was accompanied by the same natural discomforts as now. An ancient description, carved in stone, tells of how Nebuchadnezzar went to war with the Elamites. 5000 years ago: In the month of January he took the road, the rocks were burning and scorched like fire from the gardens was burned all vegetation. there was no water in the springs and cut off, were the
 drinking places the strength of the
 great horses wearled"
 And now comes a British officer. His
 account was written three weeks ago.
 He says:
 Even the word hellish' is not ade-
 quate enough to convey clearly to the
 human mind the most appalling time the troops have had. The temperature Is 12y in the shade-I mean the biggest and
 coolest tent here--it must be 130 in the smallest tents. major of the Forty fourth had thermometer which regis tered loO only, and one day 1t burst. On
 the 9th, after scrap with the Arabs. we experienced all the horror of horrors of
 the desert--thirst. The general said
 there would be water We found the
 rullah dry The sun was terribly fierce and we were all absolutely done The order was given to march to the river.
 thanked heaven that I was mounted. Oh, I felt so sorry for the poor. unfor- tnnate Sepoys. Matters become serious, as men were falling down with exhaus- tion and every 100 yards we covered it looked blacker and blacker. It was inl- possible to go any further. The cavalry went for water. The sights I saw were awful. I thought I was to die. This country Is a hell of a place for a white man.
 So far as is known now the British
 objective is Bagdad. It is still a plr- turesque city of the east. but without, in large measure. the glory that was its own when the Calf Haroun-Al-
 Raschid, principal figure of the Arab ian Nights, ruled most magnifcent1y until one jovial evening when he called for and got the head of his favorite vizier, the vizier's four sons and all their descendants, to the number Of 1000. From then his glory waned and the famous calf died repenting
 The British columns. scattered far and wide, have already conquered 30,- 900 square miles of this storied terri
 tory. Much of it was gained after stubborn and bloody fighting. for the sTurks and the Arabs whose aid they
 have enlisted or forced are foes worth
 while-brave, resourceful and with a
 knowledge of the ways of river and
 desert which the British and Indian
 troops have had to. learn. The troops
 nave uHQtT& &One tHe 8E6hteStf 1afQenlp pS.
 This has been the wettest season in the last 25. The Tigris and the Eu- pirates, great waterways both, flow through level plains. Between the two rivers fin the ever expanding "jezireh' or island, as the Arabs call it, and on the outward banks, the plains are in tersected by great network of canals and streams tributary to the two main rivers The canals are relics of the anciapfS ntill in The 1igris. and the Euphrates join at kur- na. forming the Shatt-el-Arab which flows to the Persian gulf. passing through Basrah on the way. In flood time the whole country is overflown. Still water Is succeeded by reedy marsh, swift currents and treacherous eddies. British infantry has had to advance in native flat bottomed boats. It is new kind of infantry warfare. Away from the flooded area, in all di- rections, lies desert, hot and arid desert. where all except specially con- structed thermometers are useless, for the mercury rises to 1S0 degrees and more. Soldiers who curse the floods will a few hours later shriek for a have dropped by the wayside. exhaust ed by that most terrible of all things thirst
 English interests in the Persian gulf and up through Mesopotamia are great CT than those of any other nation ana of much longer standing. British steam CTS ply the Rigris and British com merce excels that of all other nations. For years British forces, mostly naval. have fought pirates and gun runners in the Persian gulf, cleaning them out. The British steamers serve a useful purpose other than commercial The wastes on either side of the Tigris are inhabited by Arabs and Kurds. They know no law; they kill each other with lappunity. stranger has much to fear within their gates. They are. however oppressed by their Turkish masters and have no means of redress of their own. So, when oppression becomes too great they fire on a British steamer. It 10 like the pebble thrown in a still pond-the ripples 70 far and wide. When. from the reedy bank of the Tigris. . sudden voliey flashes forth and bullets flatten ( kA A~I~