From Persian Uplands. By F. Hale. (Constable. 10s. 6d. net.)
—Mr. Hale was stationed from. 1913 to 1917 at Birjand, in Eastern Persia, and from 1917 onwards at Kermanshah, near the Western frontier. This book contains his letters to a friend at home, describing the ordinary course of life in sleepy Persia, and touching lightly on the German and Turkish intrigues and the measures taken to counteract them. Mr. Hale is a charm- ing writer, and he evidently knows and likes the Persian people, though he recognizes their lack of public spirit. Thus his un- pretentious book gives perhaps a truer picture of modern Persia than some more ambitious works. Mr. Hale declares that the Persians are far more intelligent than their neighbours, and that they only need good schools and a tolerable administration. His account of the results achieved at a modern school in Birjand is remarkable. It seems that the German agents who made trouble in Persia did not succeed in Birjand, where order was secured by a few Indian and Russian troops. Mr. Hale was engaged at Kermanshah in the preparations for General Dunster- vine's romantic little expedition to Baku. He .notes that the historic road through Kermanshah to Baghdad was repaired by our sappers, and that trade at once began to flow along it. Now that a railway reaches the foot of the pass into Persia this ancient highway will regain its old importance.
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