Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1917-03-15
BRITISH REACH
COAL AT BACDAD
Gen. Mdude's Drive Declared
Greatest of War.
TWO-YEAR CAMPAIGN ENDED

News With Great Enthusiasm-cap.
tured City Was Capital of Ancient
Empires-Is Holy MosIem City.
Morale Of Turk Army Weakens.
London, Mar. 13.-Bagdad has fallen.
Official announcement is made that
British troops under General Maude
have entered and taken possession of
the city.
Few details of the capture are avail
able. All that England knows now is
that the ancient Moslem metropolis
is in British hands.
England JubiIant Over Victory.
That is sufficient cause for jubila-
ton. Not since the beginning of the
war has greater victory crowned
the hard work of England's army.
The capture of Bagdad wipes out
the defeat of Townsend's army at
Cstephon and it's capture at Kut-El.
Amara.
Maude's Drive Called Greatest of War.
General Maude's drive northward
along the crooked Tigris since the cap
ture of Kut is regarded as one Of the
most spectacular and brilliant feats
of the war.
News of Bagdad's capture reached
London late in the afternoon. It was
promptly flashed broadcast and came
to all Europe as one of the greatest
surprises of the war. That the city
would fall sooner or later was gen.
orally expected, but that the capture
the most sanguine British military ex>
perts.
The Turks had been expected to
make a stubborn stand on the River
Diala, six miles away. Only few days
ago Major General Frederick B.
Maurice, chief director of military OPP
erations at the British war Office, had
predicted a hard battle. The idea was
general that for two years the Turks
had been busy constructing powerful
defenses to ward off the final British
onslaught.
Blow to Ottoman Morale.
All England was jubilant and adj
vices from the other entente capitals
show the spirit of triumph IS fully
shared there.
The capture Of Bagdad, 1t is felt
goes a long way toward re-establish-
ing the badly impaired British pres
tige in the Near and Far East.
To the Turks the reverse is one of
the worst they have suffered in the
war. It is expected to deal a telling
blow to the morale of TIE Ottoman
army and to the Sultan's prestige
among the Mohammedan world.
Bagdad has been in Turkish posses
sion since 1888, when Sultan Murad
". wrested it from the Persians. Two
centres ago one desperate but futile
effort to retake it was made by Shah
Nadir Bagdad represents, therefore, a
precious page in Ottoman history. The
Mohammedans have given it the name
of Oar Els Sa1am" (City of Saliva
ton, or sacred City").
Germans Predict Turk Rally.
Washington, Mar 13.-In Teutonic
quarters here there was unconcealed
gloom. "Everything's gone dead wrong
down there since Won Der Goltz died."
said a German diplomat. Further than
that he had nothing to say. Germans
well-versed with military affairs took
the view that Bagdad, like Kut-El-
Amara, was voluntarily evacuated by
the Turks, who were Turing or the
British" into regions which will be
swamped when the spring thaw sets
in. They likened the Turkish strategy
of retirement to that of the Germans
on the Somme and Ancre, in the west
"There is an army of at least one
million Turkish soldiers ~.-Iirr1rry or
gained and trained for more than a
year." said one "This army will be
heard from when the proper time
comes"
One of the amazing features of the
British success is the rapidity with
which they took and swept beyond
Ctesiphon, the high water mark Of
their advance two years ago when the
Turks Unexpectedly rallied and drove
them back to Kut.