e had seen Mecca, came up and they conversed. Green Turban was plainly
lamenting. He pointed to our ship, to the telegraph-office, to a squad
of Gurkhas marching past wearing their ration baskets as hats, and threw
up his hands. The fat cafe proprietor shrugged his shoulders and pointed
to the bazaar. His argument was plain. Business was good and he was
content with the changes. Green Turban drew his robes closer round him,
shook his head and went off, a sad, gaunt figure on whose face was
stamped that expression which is common all the world over when new
wine and old bottles make contact. As he passed up the bank a barge load
of howitzers, their yellow muzzles gazing skywards, churned its way up
stream.

The railway from Kurna to Amara was nearing completion towards the end
of November. It is possible for vessels of considerable size to traverse
the whole length of the Shatt-el-Arab up to its point of commencement at
Kurna. The railway, so long in coming, will make a great difference to
the troops in the country during the next hot season. For, with proper
lines of communication and with properly equipped buildings for the sick
and wounded, a great deal of the sufferings that were endured in the
early stages of the campaign will be entirely done away with.

The major, a dreamy soul, while brooding over the golden brown plain on
our way down river, now and then sought to fathom the mystery of the
country's future. As we left Kurna and entered the fair, broad-bosomed
Shatt-el-Arab he suddenly swept his arm round the horizon. "All this
show of ours out here is nothing in itself," he said. "It's a beginning
of something that will materialise a hundred or two hundred or a
thousand years hence. We are the great irrigating nation and that's why
we're here now. We'll fix this land up and get it going and then far
ahead all the agricultural produce which we made possible will move the
wheels of a new humanity. Pray God, yes--a new humanity! One that
doesn't stuff itself silly with whisky and beef and beer and die of
apoplexy and high explosives."

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED,
BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E. 1,
AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

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