Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-03-13
FALL OF BAGOAD ENDS GERMANY'S
 ROPES FOR EAST
More Than Two Thirds of Turks Artillery Falls to
 British With City.

ing the fall of Bagdad in the house of
 commons today, Andrew Bonar Law, chancellor of the exchequer, said there
 was every reason to believe that two-
 thirds of the Turks artillery had fal-
 len into the hands of the British or had been thrown into the Tigris.
 Gen. Frederick Stanley Maude, in
 command of the entente forces in Mesopotamia, telegraphed the news of
 the occupation yesterday morning of ,Bagdad, the chief Turkish city in
 Mesopotamia and formerly the capital
 of the empire of the Caliphs.
 No details of the capture have yet
 been received, General Maudes story
 of the operations carrying events only up to Saturday morning, when the
 British, after effecting surprise
 crossing of the Diala and bridging the Tigris, had driven the Turks back to
 within three miles of Bagdad. It is evident, however, that the Turks have
 been unable to offer any serious re-
 sistance since the fall of Kut-el- Amara.
 They were said to be hurriedly
 summoning endorsements from other
 theaters of the war where Turks were engaged, but the distances to be cov-
 cred were so great that additional
 forces were unable to arrive in time
 to save the ancient city which, after
 Mecca, occupies first place in the
 Mohammedan minds.
 The fall of Bagdad, besides ending
 German hopes of near Eastern domin- ion, based on a Berlin-Bagdad rail-
 way, will reverberate throughout the Mohammedan empires and, it is be-
 lieved. will more than rehabilitate
 British prestige in the Far East dam- aged by the earlier loss of Kut-el- Amara.
 Climax of Dramatic Feature @ War Bagdad's capture marks the eli max to one of the most dramatic and picturesque features of the war, which has fallen to British arms, and links the present to a past so distant that it is semi-fabulous. The known his tory of Bagdad reaches back for moro than 4,0O0 years to the shadowy times of King Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon, quay built by the Scriptural monarch still existing submerged in the Tlgrls Within it's precincts also there still stand the tombs of the Jewish proph- cts Joshua, Ezra and Ezekiel and the ] we'll of Daniel.
 Long after the Babylonian dynasty 1 had ceased to be more than a mem ory, Bagdad rose to splendor as tho artistic. literary, scientific and rel1g ious capital of the world. The hear of the great islamic empire of the Caliphs for hundreds of years, it was known through the world as "the glo ! rious city," and was the scene of the fantastic exploits of Haroun Al 1 Rashid, the potentate whose magnifi
 cence is immortalized in the Arabian
 Nights.
 In 500, o. D., Bagdad was credited l with a population of 100000, ant l was easily the first city in the worlt l in wealth and commerce. With th' 1 fall of the Caliphs before the Turkish sultans, the decline of Bagdad com
 menced. It was successfully the pre-! 1 of Turks, Mongols, Tartars and Pers i ians, but it was not until 163S tha the city became definitely a part O the Turkish empire. It's ancient i'm 1 portance was largely due to the fac 1 that it stood at the center of the line' of communication between India ant i Persia and the west, but the opening l of new routes by way of Trebizont
 and through Armenia diverted it 1 trade and was vital factor in its de
 cline.