Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/972

922 TABLE 3. Imports.

1912

1919

Textiles.

1,320,000

6,380,000

Sugar. . ..

293,000

1,453,000

Tea

433,ooo

Grain and Flour.

433,ooo

Tobacco. . . ".

426,000

Carpets ....

280,000

Liqueurs. .

.

193,000

Cigarette-papers and smok-

ers' requisites.

175,000

Metals and Ores.

733.ooo

166,000

Soap

153,000

TABLE 4. Exports.

1912

1919

Dates

466,000

1,470,000

Piece Goods

3,540,000

f Barley

1,120,000 1

Grain : \ Wheat

240,000 [

190,000

[ Paddy

326,000 J

Wool

300,000

160,000

Carpets ....

240,000

Sugar

530,000

Tea .....

225,000

Nearly the whole of the piece goods, sugar and tea shown in the exports for 1919 were destined for Persia.

Deductions based on these figures have to be made with caution. The figures give total values, not quantities; consequently the rise in prices between 1912 and 1919 has to be taken into account. More- over, several abnormal causes contributed to bring about an increase in imports into Mesopotamia. The closing of the Caucasus route diverted to Mesopotamia trade which would ordinarily have gone to Persia via Batum, Baku and the Caspian; the large purchases in Mesopotamia, both by the army authorities and by the troops, gave increased purchasing power to the country; the depletion of stocks during the war led to a rush of trade the moment shipping became available; and the rise in the value of the rupee, considerable during the war and very marked in 1919-20, led to abnormally large pur- chases. Nevertheless it may be taken for granted that a greater volume of trade will flow into and through Mesopotamia than before the war, if only because: (i) the Caucasus ipute is not likely to be safe, expeditious and cheap for some time; (2) the Mesopotamian railway system favours the Bagdad route to Persia; (3) the standard of living in Mesopotamia has been raised considerably during the war; and (4) the economic development begun during the war is certain to encourage enterprise.

Communications. The exigencies of the campaign compelled the British military authorities to maintain a large fleet of river steamers on the Tigris, and this involved the adoption of measures to facilitate navigation. The whole course of the navigable channel has been marked by buoys or by signs erected on the banks, and efforts have been made with considerable success to improve the bed of the river. At Basra a modern port has been constructed ; whereas before the war cargo had to be unloaded from steamers into lighters in mid-stream, ocean-going steamers can now come alongside and dis- charge cargo on to the wharves or railway trucks.

A dictum attributed to Sir William Willcocks, that it would pay Mesopotamia to use all the water from the Tigris and the Euphrates for irrigation and to rely on railways for transport, is not likely to be regarded as practical politics for a very long while. In 1921 there was far more traffic on the Tigris than before the war. The Turkish Government fleet had disappeared as an organization; but, on the other hand, the successors of Messrs. Lynch were no longer restricted to three boats, and in addition many other companies and individuals ran boats purchased from the British military authorities when the river war fleet was reduced. The bed of the Tigris has been improved on the most difficult stretch, and the control of the canals should effect further improvements.

In 1914 Mesopotamia had only 70 m. of railway a standard- gauge line running from Bagdad northwards to Samarra. This was intended to be linked up with the Bagdad railway, the main portion of which ran from Constantinople through Konia and Aleppo to Nisibin (1917), about 100 m. north-west of Mosul. By 1920 there was a network of railways in Mesopotamia: in metre gauge, Basra to Bagdad (about 354 m.), Bagdad to the Persian frontier (about 130 m.), with extension to Kifri (about 50 m.), and Bagdad to Kut (about 104 m.) ; in standard gauge, Bagdad via Samarra to Sherghat (about 186 m.). There was also a narrow-gauge line from Bagdad to Falluja, on the Euphrates a distance of about 30 miles. All these railways, the standard-gauge line excepted, were built by the British military authorities as part of the plan of campaign.

Basra and Bagdad are connected by railway, but it was not yet possible in 1921 to travel from one end of Mesopotamia to the other by rail. The section of the Bagdad railway built by the Germans from Bagdad to Samarra was extended for war purposes as far as Sherghat, which is only about 70 m. south of Mosul; but as it passes through desert for a great part of its length it is unprofitable as a commercial undertaking, and it may be decided to take up the Samarra-Sherghat extension and to establish communication with Mosul by continuing the line from Kifri through the wheat-growing country and the considerable towns of Kirkuk, Altun Koprii and Erbil. No official decision as to military communication with the Mediterranean had yet been published in 1921. Some authorities desired to see the Mesopotamian system connected with the Bagdad railway, which has reached Nisibin, about 100 m. north of Mosul; others would prefer a line across to some port in Palestine. The pil- grim traffic from Persia would, it is believed, justify the construc- tion of a line to connect the Shiah towns of Najaf and Karbala with the existing lines.

The port of Basra is large enough, and sufficiently well supplied with facilities for unloading, to deal with the trade of Mesopotamia for some years to come. It can deal with larger ships than the Fao bar at the mouth of the Shatt al 'Arab will allow to pass, but plans for the dredging of this bar were being made.

Archaeology. All systematic archaeological research was sus- pended by the war. The antiquities of Mesopotamia were protected by a Proclamation issued by the General Officer Commanding in Chief in 1917. Article 14 of the draft mandate is of importance to archaeologists. It says:

"The mandatory will secure the enactment within twelve months from the coming into force of this mandate, and will ensure the execu- tion of a Law of Antiquities, based on the contents of Article 421 of Part XIII. of the Treaty of Peace with Turkey. This law shall replace the former Ottoman Law of Antiquities, and shall ensure equality of treatment in the matter of archaeological research to the nationals of all States, members of the League of Nations."

Some of the Sherghat antiquities, which were being sent to Berlin by the German archaeologists who carried out the excavations, were captured by the Portuguese on the outbreak of war and were declared lawful prize by the Portuguese Government. Certain cases of antiquities collected by a German mission in Samarra before the war were found in Mesopotamia. Having neither the staff nor the facilities for dealing with such treasures, and fearing that they would deteriorate, the Mesopotamian authorities sent the cases to the British Museum to be examined and catalogued.

See also E. B. Soane, To Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in Disguise (1912) ; G. E. Hubbard, From the Gulf to Ararat (1916) ; Official Report on Mesopotamia, White Paper, Dec. 1920; Jas. Saumarez Mann, An Administration in the Making (1921) ; Major Hay, Two Years in Kurdistan (1921). (A. T. W.) MESSEL, RUDOLPH (1848-1920), Anglo-German chemist, was born at Darmstadt Jan. 14 1848, and educated at the universities of Zurich, Heidelberg and Tubingen. He came to England in 1870 and acted as assistant to J. C. Calvert and later to Sir Henry Roscoe at Manchester. He then took up industrial chemistry and made notable experiments, especially in connex- ion with processes for obtaining sulphuric acid (see 26.68) for use in alizarin manufacture. He died in London April 18 1920. METALLURGY (see 18.203). The progress in metallurgy after 1911 was profoundly affected by the incidence of the World War. Modern warfare is so entirely dependent upon the products of metallurgy that the effort to secure military factory to some extent resolved itself into struggle for supremacy in metallurgical output by the opposing nations. This applied most directly, perhaps, to steel products such as guns and shells, ship-plates and armour plates, etc., but it also applied to copper and its alloys, to zinc, to lead and antimony, and, in a special degree, to aluminium. During the war period, therefore, the progress of metallurgy became mainly a relentless struggle for output in which, in some directions, quality was ruthlessly sacrificed and heavy " war risks " were cheerfully taken. After the termination of the war, industrial conditions became extremely unsettled and difficult; for a time there was still a great shortage of ships; then followed acute industrial disturbances, particularly in England, while the war-scarred Continental nations only slowly resumed their normal activities, which were gravely hindered on all sides by the direct and indirect economic consequences of the Treaty of Versailles.

The whole period under review (1910-21), therefore, falls into two main divisions prior to Aug. 1914 and the period of the war and after. During the former period there was a steady development both of metallurgical science and practice, but both were rudely deflected by the war. None the less, the stress of war conditions has produced a large amount of important progress, but in many directions full knowledge of what had been attained is only now reaching publicity. We were still in 1921 too near the World War to be able to appreciate its real