Marvellous Mesopotamia. By Joseph T. Parfit. (S. W. Partridge. 6s.
net.)—Canon Parfit went to Baghdad in 1894 and has revisited it at intervals. He gives a readable account of the main features of Mesopotamia and contrasts the corrupt Turkish rule with the highly efficient British administration. He contends that the money spent on public works during tile
ar, so that land might be irrigated and corn grown for the army, enabled much shipping to be set free for use elsewhere, and also helped India to tide over a bad harvest. He holds that the occupation of Basra, soon after the Turks declared war, and the advance up the Tigris enabled the anti-Turkish Moslems to repot the appeal for a "holy war" made from Constantinople at the order of Berlin. The Turks did not scruple to seize by treachery some of the chief citizens of Kerbela and to hang them, and to bombard that sacred Shiah city, just as they bombarded
the shrine at Mecca. Canon Parfit's summary of the " transfoo motion" of Mesopotamia is interesting. Baghdad now 1,41 electric light and a water-supply, and its streets are cleaned, At Basra under the Turks steamers had to discharge into boats in mid-stream ; Basra is now a great modern port with miles of wharves and docks. Much of the Persian trade which used tc pass through Russia and the Black Sea ports now passes through Basra, and thence by rail to Khanikin. The photographs in the book are highly interesting.
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