y two military police and questioned closely by an
examining board. My papers were taken and I was told to go to London and
apply for them at the Home Office. As I was again practically without
means I was given permission to go to my home in Bradford before
proceeding to London.

* * * * *

In cooperation with the British forces, a Russian army took part in
movements against Bagdad and Turkish cities in Armenia and Persia. These
military movements were marked by varying success on the part of the
Russian and Turkish forces. Certain phases of this campaign are
described in the following chapter.

THE ANGLO-RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN IN TURKEY

JAMES B. MACDONALD

Copyright, American Review of Reviews, April, 1916.

[Sidenote: Mesopotamia important to Great Britain.]

It is perhaps not generally realized how important the future of
Mesopotamia is to the British, or why they originally sent an expedition
there which has since developed into a more ambitious campaign. Ever
since the Napoleonic period British influence and interests have been
supreme from Bagdad to the Persian Gulf, and this was the one quarter of
the globe where they successfully held off the German trader with his
political backing.

[Sidenote: Great Britain's war with Persia.]

[Sidenote: British steamer on the Tigris.]

It will be recalled that early in Queen Victoria's reign Great Britain
engaged in a war with Persia, and landed troops at Bushire in assertion
of their rights. Ever since they have policed the Persian Gulf, put down
piracy, slave and gun-running, and lighted the places dangerous to
navigation. These interests having been entrusted to the Government of
India, news affecting them seldom finds its way into Western papers.
Previous to the war a line of British steamers plied regularly up the
River Tigris to Bagdad, the center of the caravan trade with Persia. The
foreign trade of this town alone in 1912 amounted to $19,000,000, and it
was nearly all in the hands of merchants in Great Britain or India.
Germany exported $500,000 worth of goods there annually. Basra, farther
down the river, exports annually about 75,000 tons of dates, valued at
$2,900,000. It also does a large export trade in wheat.

[Sidenote: An irrigation scheme.]

[Sidenote: The Persian oil fields controlled by Great Britain.]

[Sidenote: Native tribes subsidized.]

A large irrigation scheme was partly completed before the war,