War in the Garden of Eden | Page 6

along for double the distance by river, with a
good chance of being hung up for hours, or even days, on some shifting
sand-bar. At first sight Kut is as unpromising a spot as can well be
imagined, with its scorching heat and its sand and the desolate
mud-houses, but in spite of appearances it is an important and thriving
little town, and daily becoming of more consequence.
The railroad runs across the desert, following approximately the old
caravan route to Baghdad. A little over half-way the line passes the

remaining arch of the great hall of Ctesiphon. This hall is one hundred
and forty-eight feet long by seventy-six broad. The arch stands
eighty-five feet high. Around it, beneath the mounds of desert sand, lies
all that remains of the ancient city. As a matter of fact the city is by no
means ancient as such things go in Mesopotamia, dating as it does from
the third century B.C., when it was founded by the successors of
Alexander the Great.
My first night in Baghdad I spent in General Maude's house, on the
river-bank. The general was a striking soldierly figure of a man,
standing well over six feet. His military career was long and brilliant.
His first service was in the Coldstream Guards. He distinguished
himself in South Africa. Early in the present war he was severely
wounded in France. Upon recovering he took over the Thirteenth
Division, which he commanded in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign,
and later brought out to Mesopotamia. When he reached the East the
situation was by no means a happy one for the British. General
Townshend was surrounded in Kut, and the morale of the Turk was
excellent after the successes he had met with in Gallipoli. In the end of
August, 1916, four months after the fall of Kut, General Maude took
over the command of the Mesopotamian forces. On the 11th of March
of the following year he occupied Baghdad, thereby re-establishing
completely the British prestige in the Orient. One of Germany's most
serious miscalculations was with regard to the Indian situation. She felt
confident that, working through Persia and Afghanistan, she could stir
up sufficient trouble, possibly to completely overthrow British rule, but
certainly to keep the English so occupied with uprisings as to force
them to send troops to India rather than withdraw them thence for use
elsewhere. The utter miscarriage of Germany's plans is, indeed, a fine
tribute to Great Britain. The Emir of Afghanistan did probably more
than any single native to thwart German treachery and intrigue, and
every friend of the Allied cause must have read of his recent
assassination with a very real regret.
When General Maude took over the command, the effect of the Holy
War that, at the Kaiser's instigation, was being preached in the mosques
had not as yet been determined. This jehad, as it was called, proposed

to unite all "True Believers" against the invading Christians, and give
the war a strongly religious aspect. The Germans hoped by this means
to spread mutiny among the Mohammedan troops, which formed such
an appreciable element of the British forces, as well as to fire the fury
of the Turks and win as many of the Arabs to their side as possible. The
Arab thoroughly disliked both sides. The Turk oppressed him, but did
so in an Oriental, and hence more or less comprehensible, manner. The
English gave him justice, but it was an Occidental justice that he
couldn't at first understand or appreciate, and he was distinctly inclined
to mistrust it. In course of time he would come to realize its advantages.
Under Turkish rule the Arab was oppressed by the Turk, but then he in
turn could oppress the Jew, the Chaldean, and Nestorian Christians, and
the wretched Armenian. Under British rule he suddenly found these
latter on an equal footing with him, and he felt that this did not
compensate the lifting from his shoulders of the Turkish burden. Then,
too, when a race has been long oppressed and downtrodden, and
suddenly finds itself on an equality with its oppressor, it is apt to
become arrogant and overbearing. This is exactly what happened, and
there was bad feeling on all sides in consequence. However, real
fundamental justice is appreciated the world over, once the native has
been educated up to it, and can trust in its continuity.
The complex nature of the problems facing the army commander can
be readily seen. He was an indefatigable worker and an unsurpassed
organizer. The only criticism I ever heard was that he attended too
much to the details himself and did not take his subordinates
sufficiently into his confidence. A brilliant leader, beloved by his
troops, his loss was a severe blow to the Allied cause.
Baghdad