• THE AWAKENING MIDDLE EAST : II. IRAQ
By MICHAEL LANGLEY NOW that the petrol fields around Kirkuk are paying annual royalties of one million pounds sterling, to be. spent, by the Iraq Government on capital works, the country is relying less on its two rivers,. the Tigris and Euphrates, for a living: Yet lack of homogeneity is still as marked in Iraq as, for example, in Yugoslavia, both countries having been left with relics of the Ottoman invasion. ,In the bazaars of Mostar and Sarajevo Turkish is the current language and the fez the accepted head- dress and, as I. have also observed on a recent visit to Mosul, the culture of that north Iraqi, town is almost as Turkish as it is Arabic. The Mosul secondary school— there are e' .only three others of equal standard in th country—was built at the end of the last century by an enlightened Turkish, governor who was ,also an admirer of the progressive 1)C:obey of that exceptional Tnrkish administrator; Mina Pasha. But here todaY there is nothing suggestive of the old type of Ottoman school where the Koran' was muMbled.bY rote and the pupils slowly learned to recognise printed .charactersamong Arab, and Persian speaking peoples it is necessary to distinguish between those who read and understand and others who arc able only to mouth words.. Adequately equipped chemistry and physics laboratories have been installed and although the .students arc more .partial towards literatUre and languages they are being encour- aged to take up science as a preliminary to specialisation in that direction. Yet on the other side of the Tigris, a few hundred yards from the site of ancient Nineveh, is a beautifully laid-out public garden where 'ancient tradition prevails to the extent.of dividing it in twoone half for the men, the other for veiled women who, com- pletely enveloped in black' mantleS, squat in the shade of the trees. '
' Naturally Iraqi progressives, whose position, be it said, is both enhanced and assured in proportion as a nationali4 consciousness develops among their countrymen, are doing all they can to unite the frayed strands of tribal life and the strange mixture of minorities which have acquired, as it were, graZing rights on land only :lately enclosed. It. partly with this object that a Royal Iradah, issued by King Ghazi in June last, enforces the Iraqi National DefenCe LaW by which every young man becoMes liable for military service. In the towns con- scription has been openly welcomed,, though how far popular demonstrations are the work of interested organisers, who have never found great diffieuffy in Obtaining professional enthusiasts to hire out spontaneity at the first hint of a cause, it is difficult to Say, At all events the beginning of 1936 will see 30,000 twenty-one- year-olds under training and that is a fair proportion in country of four million persons. Troubles in the middle Etiphrates district during March and May of this year haVe, owing to the oppor- iunity they gnve to prove the efficacy of an air-force, led Iraq to call for public subscriptions to increase the strength of her air-arm. An order for a squadron of twelve bombers, placed with a British firm in September, 1934, is being repeated. Theae machines are capable of ,180 miles per hour and, though built to carry heavy .loads of bombs and, machine guns, can climb to 10,000 feet in seven and a half minutes. Meanwhile the local Press reports subscriptions to the fund " the inhabitants of Shahraban haVe collected I.D. 204 for the Aeroplane Society." Onewonders if a further demand will be made on the .public if the recent suggestions that a Navy, be formed to protect Iraqi interests in the Persian Gulf is approved by, Yassin Pasha al-IIashimi's government. Finaneially.the country is in a sound positiOn and can now .develop schemes which it has never been ,her good 'fortune to be able to afford before. While the.first royalties paid by the Iraq Petroleum Company came as a windfall in the immediate wake of the 1981 " alive-year plan for the expenditure of this income has .now been evolved. The budget, balanced. at something under 4;4 million sterling a year, leaves the ,C1 million oil-royalties to spare—the first six months of, 1935 show a surplus of revenue over expenditure of ,t100,600. So a new bridge is to'be erected in place of, the pontoon construction which today. spans .the Tigris , at Baghdad. Irrigation schemes `,are being devised and, as a preliminary to a road iMprove- ment programme, which will give work to 10,000 men, a bitumen factory has been opened on the oilfield at Quaiyarah, There is the prospect, too, of a:much needed railway in the north or the country, for, whereas Turkey has left no crack for the entry of the concession hunter, Iraq realises that her lack of iron and coal make her quite dependent on the foreigner in certain respectS. So by linking Up ]3aiji, already connected with Baghdad, with the isolated town of Mosul whence the French railhead at Tel Kotchek is little more than 100 kilometres distant, the British company which has completed its agreement with the 1raq Government will realise the dream of the promOters of the Berlin-Baghdad line and the only _break on the Boulogne-Basrah run will be the ferry crossing the Bosphorus. Iraq has more of these schemes afoot than ever before in her modern history. She is even beginning Work on the construction of new dwelling-houses to replace the mud and straw shelters of the poorer quarters of towns . and villages. To facilitate this' and other projects the Government proposes to establish a national bank, utilising credit to finance works of general benefit rather than, say the individual enterprise of the Baglidadi Jew whose reputation as a merchant throughout the middle east will never put him at a loss in the matter of finding the means to conduct business. Indeed, it is to' no small extent upon him that the succeSs of Iraqi trade depends, At the moment there is the date-harvest and the Very large export crop from the '20 million date-palms of MesopOtamia. The trees haVe lately suffered froin the Mann insect, a pest which the Government is attempting to exterminate. Then there is rice, grown in the easily flooded malarial areas north-west of Basrah. The cotton crop, such as it is, may find a future buyer in Turkey, now Manufacturing her 'own piece-goods. Animal hides ate an item very much in evidence to anyone who walks round the warehouse district Of Baghdad. And, turibus as Windy Seem, the durable sheep-intestines • provide a valuable sausage-skin trade with Germany and the United States.
It will be seen that Iraqi exports do not make a very formidable showing, but a tendency towards economic nationalism, with all its disadvantages, has not wholly deprived the country of its importance as a trade-route. Export of Persian carpets is conducted from Baghdad ; silver in its recent torrential outflow from Iran did not pass through the Iraq capital for nothing. Motor passenger-traffic is a considerable source of revenue and the dues paid by aeroplanes using the Baghdad airport are increasing. The country is certainly benefiting from her western contacts. But why the rather self- conscious morality campaign which has outlawed cabarets and dance bands after 11 p.m. and made it an offence for a man to accompany a woman, whether it be his wife or daughter, to a cinema entertainment in Baghdad ?
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