The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-02-15
kUT Is RISING
FROM ITS RUINS
After Lying for Many Months as the
City Of the Dead, Abandoned Even
By Its Native Population,
This Scene Of Great Brit
ish Defeat Is Rising

kut, Mesopotamia. Feb. l5.-(Corres.
pondence OF Associated Press. This
city, the scene of the British Mesopota
mia army's greatest reverse, after lying
Tor many months city OF the dead,
abandoned by even its native popula
tion, has gradually been rebuilt in the
past six months, and Is now a thriving
town OF nearly as great population as
IN the days Of peace,
IL was too important a center 10 be
neglected. II was link between the
Euphrates and Persia, and accordingly,
after Il had been deserted for more than
two months, a British officer arrived here
to take charge OF the work OF recon.
structing IL.
The first thing TO do was TO clean the
place. The debris was dumped out OF
the houses into the streets; the accumu.
lated Nth was buried or burned, the
barricades were pulled down, the dugouts
and trenches were filled up.
An imposing colonnade bazaar was
built along the river banks. A beginning
was made with coffee room and some
retail shops for the builders who, for a
long time were the sole population.
Skilled masons, natives who had been
employed by the Germans in connection
with the Bagdad railway, were collected
and set to work. They rebuilt and re.
rooted the old bazaars, widened the old
streets, and built new ones, repaired the
mosques, the baths and the ice fac.
tory, put new engines into the flour
mills, and converted the flats and shoals
in the middle of Tigris into vegetable
gardens
Though still in ruins. Kut to-day Is
cleaner and better town than ever be.
fore In its history. Most of the people
are back again behind their old doors.
The bazaars are thronged. And the PEG.
pie are more prosperous than ever, for
there is abundant labor for everybody
in the neighborhood. Some of the promi. /
nent people of the town will never come
back. Eight of them, including the
Sheikh and his sons, were hanged by /
the Turks, and forty others were shot
The house which General Townshend |
during the siege has been re.
paired, but the roof and balcony are |
still pitted with shrapnel. Seven shell /
holes have been filled with plaster. The
of the general and of his prin-
cipal officers survives in the names OF /
the new streets. There il Townshend
road, Dalamain road, Meliss road and 1
the names Of brave regiments are re-
corded in Dorset road, Norfolk street, Il
md Mahratta row. Every association
N the nomenclature of the Kut is
reminiscent of the memory of its former
defenders.
Especially the cemetery. The long
irawn agony of the garrison which
ought and endured here so staunchlv
o the edge of starvation makes one of
he most tragic stories in British mill.
AIRY history, Nearly ! 800 soldiers of
he British army died of wounds and ,,
isease during the siege and are buried
ogether in bare mud field enclosed by
mud wall, with few starved palms
n it, and hueless desolation all around :
nut that is Mesopotsmia. The Turks !,
ug trenches all around the cemetery,
mt they respected the graves.
Volunteer parties of blueiackets from ,
assing gunboats have landed and
trimmed these mounds of earth, which !.
re as clean-cut and neat now as in an
.nglish churchyard A brick wall is be-
~ built around the enclosure. The place :
CRASHES, it is true, but the sombre as :
ect will disappear when water is
rought to the land and the scrub palms
re fortified and cared for.
Three miles below Kut is the only y
nemy relic in the neighborhood, an
belisk put up by the Turks in commem =
ration of the fall of Kut. II is a kind q
{ Cleopatra's Needle on square plinth, II
Il of kiln dried brick plastered over. An Z
d converted British Cow gun stands r
! trophy on each side. One of the \
ms has tumbled forward and the plas a
n and brick are already crumbling j.
he monument was never unveiled and is g
i'll half .covered with canvas sheeting Y
ost of which, however, has been carried
way by the wind. H. -