The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-08-15
AIR GUARD FOR RAILWAY

Certainly such. railroad presents no engineering difficulties and, now
 that the aeroplane has been developed
 to the point of practical usage, there
 would be no difficulty in guarding; ;;
 such a railroad from the petty dep
 relations of Beduin. The railroal
 from Aleppo to Baghdad is still far
 from completion and it is not certain
 that it will ever be completed. It was
 suited, some say, for Berlin-to- BaSh-
 dad route, but it is not suited for an
 econc mical way of transportation 70
 and from Mesopotamia. If western
 exit from Mesopotamia is sought, cer-
 tainly Haifa would be the logical choice and railroad across the
 Syrian desert the inevitable result. It
 is certain, too, that such a railroad
 would cut down the time of the Eng fish mails to India by several days and it would also enable shippers of Mesopotamian products to dodge the
 Suez canal dues which form no small item in the budgets of shipping com
 panes in this part of the world.
 Opponents of the Syrian desert route, however say that the cheapest solu-
 tion of Mesopotamias transport diffi-
 culties would be a railroad to Bosra
 and the drainage of the country around
 Bosra to make that port healthful.
 Should the Syrian desert railroad be
 built the impetus it would give the
 port of Haifa would depend, of course,
 on the amount of reclamation the gov
 erning power in Mesopotamia is able
 to achieve. Mesopotamia has all the
 possibilities of a tropical Canada, if cap ital and settlers can be obtained for II .
 To what degree is Haifa capable of accommodating the large number Of inhabitants which a busy port would assemble there?
 The present town of 10000 inhabit- ants is a strip of settlements along l the shore of the Bay of Akka Throughout it's length. the distance between the shore and Mount Carmel | is comparatively narrow. In this re- spect. Beirut is better situated. It is capable of indefinite expansion. Halfa, however, has room to expand up and down the bay, and a s soon as trans portation is available up the slopes of Mount Carmel quite a different | sort of expansion is made possible. To jaded Egyptians. whose only fe- | sort is Alexandria, a summer home on 1 the slopes of Mount Carmel at Haifa l would be a great boon. Carmel is one 1 of the most beautiful spots in Pales- l tine. It is green the year around Uhe | name Carmel means orchard) and has an abundant supply of pure water.
 In the direction of the sea it siorcs | down to a shelving promontory where | the Carmelite monastery is situated 4S0 feet above the sea. This promcn- l tory forms a very conspicuous object 1 from a distance at sea. As'it remains | green. even in summer, it forms re- l freshing exception to the general arid- | ity of Palestine in the hot season. The ancient population of Palestine re- | garded the mountain as sacred and at | a very early period it was called the Mount of God. Elijah summoned the | people to Mount Carmel when he re- | built the altar of Jehovah, which had | formerly stood there The beauty of Carmel is frequently mentioned in tie | Bible.
 1 At present Haifa is in need of bet | ter water supply, better roads and an ! untangling Of titles to the lands about ! it. Plenty of pure water is available l near by and it is only the lack of money which postpones the installa- | tion of a new municipal water supply. Haifa, in common with all the rest of | Palestine. was stripped of everything of value which the fleeing Turks could | lay their hands on.