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long disused but well aligned canal on the Euphratesthese two canals bringing 60,000 new acres under cultivation. The shortage of plough oxen was met by importation from India, the difference in prices making the transaction profitable. Scientific experiments in cotton had already been commenced, and valuable results were obtained. Tests of sugar, beet and various types of wheat were made, and disease in plant life generally and dates in particular examined. Cattle breeding was receiving attention, and the surplus stock in military grass and dairy farms was made available for the civil population.

It was at this point that the war ended. The future of Mesopotamia is still undecided; and, till the political situation is clear, it is hazardous to predict its economic future. Immediately after the armistice we occupied Mosul, a province which is even richer than Irak. Its soil is better suited to wheat; irrigation is necessary for summer crops only; and it abounds in springs. Irak itself comprises 12,000,000 acres of irrigable land of amazing fertility, of which at least 10,000,000 remain to be developed; it produces the finest dates, except those of Tunis, in the world; it is rich in salt and abundant in oil. There are sulphur springs and bitumen and gypsum deposits. The climate in the plains even in the hot months is not unbearable; if hill stations were provided on the vine-clad slopes of Kurdistan, living would be delightful. The population at present is scant but prolific, and would rapidly expand under healthy conditions. Mesopotamia is a land of great promise. The difficulties in the way of reconstruction are considerable; land problems and the adjustment of rights between Arab cultivators and city proprietors call for skilled handling; but, given good government, the future of this portion of Arabia may quickly develop a prosperity no less complete and much more profitable to the world at large than that which it enjoyed in the days of Harounal-Raschid.

to it.

The out-and-out inciters to violence are few and of little account-just tub-thumpers, or mentally unbalanced fanatics or slinking knaves. There is therefore an atmosphere in which settlement by reason is possible; and such change of opinion as has recently occurred is in that direction. Prudence has made some

way against pugnacity.

But all this, though it opens up a possibility, is wholly insufficient for realisation. Its negative influence will disappear in a moment when matters come to a practical issue, unless it develops into a positive and strong determination to seek a settlement by united counsel ; and of such determination there is no sign. The notes of defiance may be a little less loud, but there is as yet no thought of anything but fighting. The idea of sincere co-operation between opponents in finding the best solution has never entered their heads or any one else's, so far as one can see; and the insatiable pugnacity of human nature, which has been illustrated throughout the civilised world every day since the war, will certainly assert itself once more unless a great effort is made to check it.

In these circumstances and with this dire prospect before us I suggest that all parties make an effort to approach the question in a less combative and more accommodating spirit; for, if it be fought out, none will emerge unscathed from the conflict. It is quite useless for them to protest that they do not want a conflict when what they mean in their hearts by that is that some one else should give way to them. On those terms every one desires peace; and in that sense the German Kaiser could lay his hand on his heart and swear that he did not want war. It is quite certain that the coal industry will be carried on upon some system or other in the end; and any system that is adopted after a conflict can obviously be adopted before it.

What is the obstacle? Nothing but the state of men's minds. They hold tenaciously by their prepossessions and will not yield until compelled by force of circumstances. The frequent use of the fatal word 'principle' reveals their determination. There are such things as principles of conduct which ought to over-ride immediate expediency; but they do not apply to a purely Vol. 232.-No. 461.

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