The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-06
TOWN OF BASRAH RECALLS BABEL
 TOWER OF THE BIBLE
More Than Forty Dialects and Languages Spoken in This MesopOtamian
 Center

Basrah, Mesopotamia, April 10.-(Cor- respondence of the Associated Press) The difficulties which the ancient builders of the Tower of Babel experienced with the language difficulty may be easily un- derstood by anyone who has spent a It, tie time in Basrah. Not the least of the many problems presented for solution to the British authorities in their operations against the Turks has been this same problem which the contractors for the old tower wrestled with many centuries ago.
 The dialects in common use at Basrah are said to be over 70 in number. The most popular Is Arabic, but it Is not the Arabic of Egypt or Morocco; it Is a distinct tongue, with which the Egyp- tian or Moroccan experiences the greatest difficulty Then there is Persian, with variations known as Bagdad-Persian, Nejd-Persian and Basrah-Persian. Fur kish is frequently heard. while Armenian and Chaldean are the languages of the native Christian population. Kurdish is used by another section of the inhabit- ants, while Hindustani Is the language Of the Indian troops forming part of the British forces.
 It is obvious that in such situation
 
 small squad of them is attached to every office and almost every officer. Some of them were obtained in Egypt. some from India, others from Alden, and the remain der were recruited locally. Those from India have in most cases acquired their knowledge of Arabic and Persian from classical works, with the result that their high flown, archaic conversations sound amusing when applied to everyday af- fairs.
 The interpreters drawn from Basrahare undoubtedly the most generally useful, although not always entirely trustworthy Most of them are natives of IraQ and familiar with numerous local dialects too numerous to even have a name. These native interpreters, too, are less suscept- ible to the weather than men from out side, and therefore the proportion of their time spent in illness or semi-illness is small.
 But the native Mesopotamian has many of the failings of the American negro He Is inclined to prolonged spells of lazi- ness; when he has earned a few shil- lings, he is disinclined to continue his labors; at times he is overcome with longing for the delights of his own fffe- side, and at such times he simply drops tools and goes home The fact that he has contracted to give his services for fixed period he regards as quite un- important Such an event as the date picking season is as irresistible an attrac- tion for him as the odor of cooking chicken or catfish for the Mississippi negro.
 The pay of the interpreter varies ac- "ording to his ability and reliability, but the appointment is always a lucrative one A first-class native can earn as much as s75 month, which is a fair sized fortune to the native in Meso- potamia.
 The cream. of the interpreters are att tached to general headquarters, while the rank and file are distributed along the lines of communication.
 Many of the native interpreters brought from Egypt are fairly well educated and highly qualified men, Tn some cases they have had a college education on western lines. and many of them have trayeled widely.