The Times special correspondent has a long and instructive dispatch
on " Baghdad Trade and Politics " in last Satureay's issue. In spite of interrupted communications and many drawbacks, Baghdad laid last awakening from its lethargy.
The local trade is growing—British firms, he incidentally notes, show more enterprise than in the past—land has enormously increased in value, and rents have trebled. The through commerce to Persia, however, has suffered from the disturbed condition of that country, and at Baghdad there is hopeless confusion owing to the lack of accommodation in the tumbledown Custom House. A new Custom House, an iron bridge to replace the bridge of boats over the Tigris, and wireless-telegraph stations at Baghdad, Basra, and Aleppo— by which the constant interruptions of the turbulent Arabs would be obviated—are pressing needs; but the cost of military expeditions to repress the unruly tribes hampers the Turkish Government, which cannot devote money to public works while rebellion is rife on all sides and the resources are lacking to put an end to it.
