ose of that by massacre, as a means
of weakening the strength of their subject peoples. It is still there,
ready to respond to the spell of the waters of Tigris and Euphrates,
which once, when handled and controlled, caused it to be the Garden of
the Lord.

Not long before the present European War Sir William Willcocks, under
whose guidance the great modern irrigation works at Assouan were
constructed, was appointed adviser to the Ottoman Ministry of Public
Works, and his report on the Irrigation of Mesopotamia was issued in
1911. He tells us that the whole of this delta of the Sawad is capable
of easy levelling and reclamation. It would naturally be a gigantic
scheme, and he takes as a basis to start on the question of the
refertilisation of 4,000,000 acres. Into the details of it we need not
go, but his conclusions, calculated on a thoroughly conservative basis,
give the following results. He proposes to restore, of course with
modern technical improvements, the old system of canals, and, allowing
for interest on loans, estimates the total expense at L26,000,000 (or
the cost of the war for about three days). On this the annual value of
the crops would pay 31 per cent. The figures need no enlargement in
detail and no comment.

But now comes the difficulty: the construction of the irrigation works
is easy, the profits are safe so long as the Tigris and 'the ancient
river,' the river Euphrates, run their course. But all the irrigation
works in the world will not raise a penny for the investor or a grain
for the miller unless there are men to sow and gather the crops. A
million are necessary: where are they to come from? And the answer is
'Egypt and India.'

This is precisely why the protectorate of Mesopotamia and its future
must be in English hands, why no other country can undertake it with
hope of success. Even the ingenious Dr. Rohrbach, whose _Bagdadbahn_ I
have quoted before, is forced to acknowledge that there is no solution
to the man-power problem except by the 'introduction of Mohammedans from
other countries where the climatic conditions of Irak prevail.' It is
true that he starts upon the assumption that Mesopotamia will remain
Turkish (under a German protectorate, as we read between his lines),
with which we must be permitted to disagree, but his conclusion is quite
correct. Even under German protection he realises that citizens of
well-governed states will not flock by the million to put themselves
unde