Evening star., 1921-08-22
FLAMES RAGE HIGH
IN bAKU OIL FIELD
Geographic Society Cites
Consequences of Awful
Waste in Famous Area.


The skies above Baku are once more
| illuminated by the eternal fires of the
worlds most famous Oil region. Near
the spot where Zoroastrian. or Parsi,
priests guarded the sacred flames
which burned for more than a score
, OF centuries eighteen modern wells
are now ablaze. according to press
dispatches. What this great natural
waste means is brought out in the
following bulletin from the Washing
| ton headquarters of the National G~o-
graphic Society.
"!f American relief work is inau-
surated in south Russia, and il ar
rangements can be made with the
1 new governments of the Caucasus.
the race between charity and starva-
oil" says the bulletin. ALREADY the
white nights of north Russia are be-
ginning to wane. and the ice which
| coats the Neva early in the fall soon
Will be creeping down the queen of
Russian rivers and stopping trans
merce upon which large-scale relief
work on the lower Volga can depend.
Fuel Supply Important.
The iron rails of Russia have dis
integrated with neglect and traffic.
The great Russian waterway will be
open for at least two months more.
And the fuel long used in the Volga
steamers and tugs is petroleum and
its by-products, principally masut, a
thick residue from the refineries.
Fuel and food are intimately con-
nected in any plan of Russian relief
on the lower Volga, and the wastage
of petroleum in Baku is matter of
deep concern.
Before the time of the Saracens.
Baku was noted for its natura! gas
and sacred fires. At Surahhani.
where, from the days OF ZorC..ster to
1879, the colorless flames Of naptha
gas were never extinguished. temple
time of Marco Polo and restored in
the time of Shakespeare. can still be
seen. although the lighting of naptha
gas is no longer allowed here o. on
the waters of the Caspian at Bibi
Eybat. Fire worshipers on pilgrim
age to Baku in the days just preced-
ing the American revolution had the
tradition that the fires OF Surakhani
lad begun to burn soon after the
flood and that they would continue
10 burn until the end of the world.
Tombs of Silence Reminders.
When. in 636. A. D., the Arab hosts
appeared in Persia and fire worship
ers became Moslems under the sword
OF the Prophet. large numbers of
LoroaStrianS fled ~ India. Their
great Tombs of Silence on the slopes
of Malabar kill in Bombay. where
loathsome vultureS await their erue-
some opportunity as consumers of
corpses, stand as present day remind
ers of political and religious forces
which removed the Parsis from their
ancestral homes and placed them in
control of modern finance at the gate
way to India.
The modern city of Baku is a COM
biRation of the new and the old. of
the east and the west. Since the
public and the selection of Baku as
its capital. some changes have been
made. But in general Baku is what
il was before the war.
'In the spring of 1918 there was
sharp fighting between the Christians
region. At this time a large part of
the Tartar section was destroyed by
shell fire from the Caspian. The
romantic Kis- kale. or Virgin Tower,
which the Tartars used as an observa-
tion post, still bears the marks of
do serious damage to Byzantine
walls. The ancient walls of the old
Tartar citadel bear pock-mark lines
which join the apertureS in the bat
Elements and which show where
Russian and Armenian machine gun.
sprayed the ramparts and drove the
Tartar fighters from their best points
of vantage. Then came the British,
with a small force from Enzeli. But
they soon withdrew, leaving badly
mixed problem to find its own
solutions.
Marvellous OIL Production.
THE Baku oil fields in 1917. in the
midst of war and revolution. pro-
duced nearly fifty million barrels of
Is labor troubles and the closing
of the 540-mile pipe line to Batum.
on the Black sea, reduced the output
Political and social unrest have de-
moralized the oil industry, which in
Baku had reached ahigh degree of
efficiency.
During the troubles in 1918 there
were frequent threats by various fac
tions that the wells of this famous
region would be fired to keep them
from falling under foreign control.
"Baku was the field in which AL
fred B. Nobel. already noted as the
inventor of dynamite and for his sue
cess as a manufacturer of explosives,
gained the fortune. which on his
death was partly devoted to the es-
tablishment Of the peace prize and
the almost equally famous prizes for
distinction in physical science. in
chemistry, in medical science and in
literary excellence. Theodore Roose-
welt. Elihu Root and Woodrow Will
son have been recipients of the peace
prize founded on profits from Baku
oil. Other Americans who have been
honored with Nobel prizes are Albert
Abraham Nicholson, for his re-
of light; Theodore w. Richards, for
his study of atomic theories, and