The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1919-01-30
F vital Importance to our
world today is a bit of
seashore that thitherward
ia d,rootod tho onv;onc

HuNNVZHMH WI AA uONA0J 40 q O1O VI
1Eg8G2 seashore that thitherward
t0gg is directed the anxious
gaze of all the leaders of the ma
tions. 1t figures prominently as
one of the questions involved in the
great war, is the territory of an
important campaign, and was, in
fact. one of the prime factors in
the causation of the war. It has
been region of high importance
since the first morning of our civili-
zation, rich alike in history and
fable probably the cradle of wes-
tern culture, the playground of
many empires gone land perhaps
of others yet to Gomez. whose un-
dulating sands and hills hold the
ruins of sixty centuries. It is a
haunt of tranceful dreams and in
finite fascination, a latitude which
can lay most plausible claim to the
consideration of all of us.
And yet, in our time of knowl-
edge, these coast lands, famous for
ages, are scarcely known-no more
probably than they we're to the
curious Greeks of Herodotus' time
or to the Chaldeans who studied
the stars and the sea a dozen CEN
turies earlier -assuredly no more
than they were to the geographers
of Bagdad or the merchant princes
of Ispahan in the days of the good
Haroun al Raschid, writes Proyer
Buranelli in the New York World.
The Persian gulf lies brooding with
the ages. Around its ancient wa
ters are set the luster-shorn crown
jewels of Islam. 1t is a solitude of
obscure wonders awaiting explora-
ton.
The Persian gulf is landlocked
body of water of oblong shape ly-
ing between Arabia and Persia. 1t
is about five hundred miles long by
an average of two hundred miles
wide. extending from northwest to
southeast. Its outlet to the Indian
ocean, the Straits of Ormuz, is less
than three hundred miles from the
outpost frontier of India, so that
power controlling the gulf, say by
holding a fortress at the tip of the
Pirate coast. the Arabian side of
the narrow strait, would have an
immediate sally port for excursions
against the empire of the east. In
deed, with proper railroad facili.
ties in Asiatic Turkey, the Persian
gulf becomes the logical route to
India.
So it is not astonishing that when
the heavy spectacles of German
scholarship formed an alliance with
kaiserlich mustachios the idea of
the North -sea-to-P -Persia-gulf rail-
road cropped up Immediately and
showed extreme pertinacity. The
center of equilibrium in the Orient
lies in the control of the Persian
gulf.
To one side is Persia, to the 9TH
er Arabia, with crumbled Babylon
looking down from the north.
Where fairer setting for the ro-
mancer? Along the low, sandy
and forbidding west shore lie the
provinces of Ell Hasa and Oman,
the latter with that precious terri
tory known as the Pirate coast.
Here the various touches of mod
ern culture are perfectly unknown.
The Arab holds forth much as he
did when the prophet was raising
the first ructions of the Islamitic
storm. And the Arab is a person
of wide and deserved reputation.
On this coast he is seen in his most
characteristic guises-aDd also in
roles comparatively unknown to
the outside world. Camels,, sand
storms and the desert are the usual
settings for the burnoused follow
er of the prophet. But on the Per-
sian gulf coast the Arab has be-
come an expert sailor and pirate.