The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-02-16
CLEANING UP OF KUT
Making Over by the British of One
of the Ancient Cities of
Mesopotamia

Kut, Mesopotamia.-(C Correspond
ence of the Associated Press This
city, the scene of the British Meso-
potamian arny's greatest reverse,
after lying for many months a city
of the dead, abandoned by even its
native population, has gradually been
rebuilt in the past six months, and is
now a thrivings town of nearly as
great population as in days of peace.
1t was too important a center to be
neglected. 1t was link between the
Euphrates and Persia, and according
ly, after it had been deserted for
more than two months, a British Of
ficer arrived here to take charge of
the work of reconstructing it.
The first thing to do was to clean
the place. The debris was dumped
out of the houses into the streets;
the accumulated filth was buried or
burned, and barricades were pulled
down; the dugouts and trenches were
filled up.
An imposing colonnade bazaar
was built along the river bank. A
beginning was made with a 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, re-
paired the mosques, the baths and the
ice factory, put new engines into the
flour mill, and converted the flats and
shoals in the middle of the Tigpis into
vegetable gardens.
Though still partly in ruins, Kut to-
day is a cleaner and better town
than ever before in its history. Most
of the people are back again behind
their old doors. The bazaars are
thronged. And the people 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 sheik and his sons, were hanged
by the Turks, and forty others were
shot.
The house which General Town
shend occupied during the siege has
been repaired, but the roof and bal
cony are still pitted with shrapnel..
Seven shell holes have been filed
with plaster. The memory of the
General and of his principal officers
survives in the names of the new
streets. There is Townshend Road,
Delemain Road, Meliss Road, and the
names of brave regiments are record
ed in Dorset Road, Norfolk street and
Mahratta Row. Every association in
the nomenclature of the Kut is rem
iniscent of the memory of its former
defenders.
Especially the cemetery. The long
drawn agony of the garrison which
fought and endured there so staunch-
ly to the edge of starvation makes
one of the most tragic stories in Brit
ish military history. Nearly 1900
soldiers of the British army died of
wounds and disease during the siege,
and are buried together IN a bare
mud field enclosed by a mud wall,
with a few starved palms in it, and
hueless desolation all around-but
that is Mesopotamia. The Turks dug
trenches all around the cemetery, but
they respected the graves.
Volunteer parties of bluejackets
from passing gunboats have landed
and trimmed these mounds of earth,
which are as clean-cut and neat now
as in an English graveyard. A brick
wall is being built around the enclo-
sure. The place is CRASHES, it is true,
but the sombre aspect will disappear
when water is brought to the lana
and the scrub palms are testified and
cared for.
Three miles below Kut is the only
enemy relic in the neighborhood, an
obelisk put up by the Turks in COM
of the fall of Kut. 1t is
a kind of Cleopatra's Needle on a
square plinth, all of kiln-dried brick
plastered over. An old converted
British "cow-gun" stands as a trophy
on each side. One of the guns has
forward and the plaster and
brick are already crumbling. The
was never unveiled and is
still half-covered with canvas sheet
ing, most of which, however, has been
carried away by the wind.