The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1918-02-15
IKUT TURKISH City
COMES BACK T()I.IIFEE,,
CITY OF REVER9ES FOR ENGLISH
WAS FOR MONTHS
DESERTED

| kut, Mesopctamia, December So
| Correspondence of the Associated
Press This city, the scene OF the Brit
| ish MesopOtamian army's greatest re-
verse, after lying for many month a
| city of the dead, abandoned by even
its native population, has gradually
been rebuilt in the last six months, and
! is now a thriving town OF nearly as
great population as in days of peace.
1t was too important a center to be
neglected. 1t was a link between the
Euphrates and Persia, and according
ly, after it had been deserted for more
than two months, British officer ar
rived here to take charge of the work
of demonstrating 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 burn
ed, the barbados were pulled down,
the dugCuts and trenches were filed
up.
An imposing collcnade bazaar was
built along the river bank. A begin
ming was made with coffee room
and some retail shops for the builedrs,
who for a long time were the sole
population Skilled masons, natives
web had been employed by the Ger
mans in connection with the Bagadd
Railway were collected and set to
work. They rebuilt and re-roofed the
old bazaars, widened the old streets
and built new ones, repaired the mos
ques, the baths and the ice factory,
put new engines into the flour mill,
and converted the flats and the shoals
in the middle Of the Tigris into vega
table gardens.
Though still partly in ruins, Kut
toady is a cleaner and better town
than ever before in it's 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 Sheikh and his sons, were hanged
by the Turks, and forty others were
shot
The house which General Townsend
occupied during the seige has been
repaired, but the roof and balcony are
still pitted with shrapnel. Seven
shell holes have been filed with plas-
ter, The memory of the General and
OF his principal officers survives in
the names Of the new streets. There
is Townsend Read, Delamail Road, Me
liss Road, and the names Of brave reg
lments are recorded in Dorset Road
Norfolk Street, and Mahratta Row
Every association in the nomancla-
ture of the Kut is reminiscent Of the
memory of its former defenders.
Especially the cemetery The long
drawn agony of the garrison which
fought and endured here so staunch-
ly to the edge of starvation makes
one Of the most tragic stories in the
British military history Nearly IS,
90 soldiers Of the British army died
of wounds and disease during the
seige, and are buried together in a
bare mu dfield inclosed by 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 cemet cry, but
thew TpSOeCtpd tho 9raVns
Volunteer parties CT bluejackets
form passing gunboats have landed
and trimmed these mounds Of earth,
which are so clean-cut and neat now
as in an English churchyard. A brick
wall is being built around the inclo-
sure. The place is CRASHES, tits
true, but the sombre aspect will dis
appear when water is brought to the
land and the scrub palms are ferti-