The Monticellonian., 1918-12-13

H world today tht thlthefWard
 is directed theanXious gaze of all the leaders of tl nations. It figures prominently as OF of the ques- tions involved in the grGt war, is the territory of an importat campaign, and was, in fact, one of he prime fac tors in the eausation Othe war. 1t has been a region of hin importance since the first mOrning)f our civili- zation, rich alike ill hist9 and fable probably the cradle of wstern culture, the playground of manPmpires gone tand perhaps of others ct to come), whose undulating sands nd hills hold the ruins of sixty centdes. It is q haunt of tranceful drean and infinite fascination, a latitude Nich can lay most plausible claim to e considera- ton of all of us.
 And yet, in our time knowledge. these coast lands, famS for ages, are scarcely known-no Dre probably than they were to the cious Greeks of Herodotus' time or to e Chaldeans
  dozen centuries earlier-ssuredly no more than they were tdhe geogra- phers of Bagdad or the erchants of Ispahan in the days of ? good Ba- roun al Raschid, writes oyer Bura- nelli in the New York Vol. The Per sian gulf lies breeding WI the ages Around it's ancient waterare set the luster-shorn crown jewels Islam. It is solitude of obscure wders await ing exploration.
 The Persian gulf is aandlocked body of water of oblong ape lying between Arabia and Persiat is about five hundred miles long byn average of two hundred miles widextending from northwest to southea, Its out let to the Indian ocean, thstraits of 4 OrmuZ, is less than thre hundred miles from the outpost froer of In dia. so that a power conttling the gulf, say by holding a forts at the tip of the Pirate coast, Il Arabian side of the narrow strait, Nld have an immediate sally port for cursiops against the empire of the ea Indeed, with proper railroad faciliti in Asi- attic Turkey, the Persian gubecomes the logical route to India.
 So 1t is not astonishing t when the heavy spectacles of Gern schol- arship formed an alliance wfkaiser- Itch mustachioS the idea of tNorth- sea-to-Persian-gulf railroad eped up immediately and showed extAe per tinacity. The center of eqbrium in the Orient lies in the controf the Persian gulf.
 As in the Days of the Pret.
 To one side is Persia. to tother Arabia with crumbled Babyllook- ing down from the north. Nre a fairer setting for the romancer long the low, sandy and forbiddirwest shore lie the provinces of Fl H. and Oman, the latter with that Iious territory known as the Pirateast. Here the various touches of fern culture are perfectly unknownThe Arab holds forth much as he dihen the prophet was raising the fir'uc lions of the Islamitic storm. Athe Arab is person of wide and desed reputation. On this coast he iaen in his most characteristic guiSesnd also in roles comparatively unND to the outside world. Camels, nd storms and the desert are the lal settings for the burnoused follovof the prophet. But on the Persianlf coast the Arab has become an ert sailor-and pirate. He follows h of these worthy avocations with aie guile traditional of his breedd often it is guile quite fantastic tte occidental mind.
 The coast has long been re for outlawed characters from wea Europe. They partake readily ire