31 MARCH 1923, Page 22

In this readable and instructive little book Sir Percival Phillips

reprints the series of articles which he wrote for the Daily Mail as a result of his mission on its behalf to Mesopo- tamia last summer. He devotes himself mainly to giving instances of the way in which money has been wasted there ; there are plenty of them. His view, of course, is that we ought to withdraw to the Basra division, "the only self- supporting portion of Iraq." We should like to see some adequate official notice of the chapter on "Tax Collecting by Bomb." Sir Percival Phillips did good service in calling attention to this very undesirable procedure.