The Secretary for India announced on Tuesday that Basra, which
is the port of Baghdad and the great sea emporium of Mesopotamia, had been occupied on November 21st. Basra lies about fifty miles up the river Shat-el-Arab, and is just below the junction of the Tigris and the Euphrates. No one expected that it could possibly be taken so soon. In little more than a fortnight from the declaration of war on Turkey the combined naval and military forces from India have crossed fifteen hundred miles of sea, reduced the forts at the entrance of the river, ascended the river itself, and defeated the Turkish force, estimated at four thousand five hundred men with twelve guns. We heartily congratulate India on this brilliant performance. The fall of the historical and legend-haunted Basra will greatly damage Turkish and German prestige throughout the East. Germany had spent much care and money on her commercial relations with the port, and it was to be the terminus of the Baghdad Railway.
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