From Mesopotamia the news is also excellent. The pressure on
Kut is being effectively maintained by heavy bombardment and aeroplane raids on the Turks' advanced base at Baghela, to which they had withdrawn from Shumran. A further communiqué issued on Tuesday night shows that General Maude's forces, advan- cing to the right bank of the Tigris, have drawn clorer to Kut on the east, the Turkish positions being now threatened on all sides except the north. Gassab's Fort, lying midway between the Shatt-el-Hai and the Tigris, twenty miles south-east of Kut, which has long been a base of operations for hostile Arabs, has been de- molished by our cavalry, who destroyed large supplies of grain, cap- tured cattle, and burned a number of hostile Arab encampments. In fine, the position of the enemy at Kut, if not yet untenable, can only be maintained by withdrawing troops from other fronts and despatching them along lines of communication which are now seriously threatened.
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