Evening star., 1924-07-13
BY LIEUT.. r.. j. BROWN, Jr.,

L
at the royal air force airdrome al
karachi. they Immediately went to
work changing their motors and
worked sixteen hours a day until the
| work had been completed. They were
assisted by number of volunteers
| from the royal air force troops and
were able to complete their work in
| record time.
The flyers circled over Karachi air.
drome at $50 am. on July Z. In
spite of the early hour of their de-
parture, great crowd had assembled
to See them off. They flew north
west to Chahbar, $50 miles up the
| Persian coast, landing there aftei
| four hours and fifty-five minutes il
the air. At this place they were well
coined by G. A. Tomlinson of the
| Indo European telegraph line. which
passes through this place.
At Chahbar the flight remained
| only long enough to refuel and took
| off about noon tor Bandar Abbas. 335
miles farther northwest on the Pers-
| ian coast y
Planes Behave Well.
Bandar Abbas is situated at that
| point where the Gulf of Oman and the
Persian Gulf join. The peninsula of
! the desert coast of Arabia separating
| the Gulf of Oman and the Persian
Gulf can be distinguished from the
| Persian coast The flight landed on
| the airdrome, which had been pre-
pared on the beach east of Bandar
Abbas by the assistance of the Brit,
| ish consul there, after four hours ana
five minutes in the air. The alrplanes
| had behaved so splendidly through :
out the two flights on the 'th that
very little work was necessary Tor
the next days flight. The oilcers
and men of the American expedition
were entertained and quartered with
Mr. Richardson, the British consul at
Bandar Abbas. .-
On the morning of July the airmen
left Bendar Abbas for Bashire, the
! most important coast city OF PERSIA
400 miles to the west After hVe
hours in the air during which no dlf-
ficulty was experienced. they landed
at Bashire on an excellent airdome
which had been prepared by the royal
air forces as one Of the way stations
on the airway between Bagdad.
Mesopotamia and Earachi' Inola-
After a short stay in Bashire, which
was necessary for refueling and visit
ing with the officials of the British
government who had been so kind to
Lieut. Halverson. the advance officer
of the 4th Division, and had assisted
him in making all arrangements for
the landing at this place. the flight
took off that afternoon for Bagdad.
the city of the Arabian nights, 475
miles to the west.
When the flight landed at Bagdad on
the afternoon of July it had covered
s75 miles that day from Bandar Abbas.
Persia in ten hours and thirty minutes
flying time, having flown from India
to Mesopotamia in two days, traversing
the entire southern border of Persia.
Find Contrast Marked.
The contrast of the old world with
the new is marked. Persia, the oldest
empire, which has withstood the as
saults of Greek, Roman. Arab, Mongol
and Russian armies and many periods
of upheaval and strife, though not
nationally as great as some other
nations, still retains its epic charm
During the course of several thousand
years Babylon. Assyria and Chaidea
arose to power in rapid sequence,
as rapidly disappeared. Persia sue
ceeded in power and elevated south
western Asia to a still higher eminence
as a center of civilization and empire
and after years of struggles has dis
integrated, but maintained it's entity
| through the centuries in the divers ebb
and flow of fortune, down to the pres
ent day. Persia of today includes
ancient Media, mountainous Parthla
and the province of Ears, whence
sprang the first great dynasty. Though
the ma jority of the present Inhabitants
are tinged with the blood of Greek.
Arab, Turk and Mongol, they are the
lineal descendants of the Aryan and
| speak a language which has for its
basic element the ancient Persian
tongue. In these modern days when
natural affiuence is the direct result
| of commerce and manufacture, Persia
| finds itself strangely cut off from
worldly intercourse by the same natu-
raj barriers which have so far pro-
| tected her sovereignty. With the ad-
| may once more become a nation to be
! reckoned with in the world commerce.
Planes Subdue Natives.
When the world flyers arrived .at
Bagdad, they landed on the British
of the royal air force in Mesopotamia.
England maintains her protectorate
| over Mesopotamia through her air
force. With airplanes alone has
| hostile tribes of northern Mesopo-
tamia The Mad Mullah had been
carrying out depredatiOns against the
| settlements for many years and
| every means had been tried against
| him. AS a last resort the air force
| bombing, completely subdued the
Mad Mullah and his forces and since
that time have been able to maintain
| perfect order through the medium
place in the world where an entire
| defense of a mandate has relied upon
| aircraft 1he airdrome at Bagdad is
perhaps the most complete of any
afrdrome in Asia.
The city of Bagdad was founded in
| 762 by the Caliph Almanzor. reaching
! its greatest splendor during the ninth
century under the reign of the famous
Haron al Rachid, who figures in the
tales Of the Arabian Nights" 1t was
| world and a great center of culture
and learning. but it has fallen from
| its high degree and rs present i'm
portance rests solely on the fact of
has long engaged in a large part of
| the traffic of Europe on one hand and
India and Persia on the other, in
addition to being the logical center
tamia- Before the suez Canal. Bag
| dad was at the eastern end of the
caravan route from the Levant,
| across the Syrian desert, to the fer
tile valleys of the Tigris and the
Euphrates (the cradle of the human
race), but since the canal has been
completed a great deal of this trade
Is now carried on by steamers.
City Dwindles.
The old city, the residence of the
caliphs, which once boasted a popu-
lation of over 100000 Inhabitants,
is on the western shore of the Tigris,
but has now dwindled to insignifi.
| canoe. The new city, on the eastern
| bank Of the Tigris, has a population
Of about 100000. With the compile
tion of the Bagdad railroad, which
was started in 1893 with German cap
ital. Bagdad may once more take its
place among the great cities of the
world in commerce. One thousand
| one hundred and seventeen miles of
the total of 1903 miles of this rail-