File 1283/1913 Pt 5 'MESOPOTAMIA TRADE Issue of new Trade Report' [‎136r] (267/270)

important in themselves to justify the making of special provision quite independently of
military operations.
8. So much by way of preliminary discussion of general considerations. We may now
turn to matters of detail and attempt to give some indication of the lines along which the
existing resources of the country may be developed and the extent to which the requirements
of the world s markets may be met by the exploitation of Mesopotamia in directions
hitherto not dreamed of by its inhabitants.
9. One of the first problems to be tackled before the Government of the country commits
itself to a wholesale surrender of the length and breadth of the land to the irrigation engineer
must be that of the rival merits of pastoral and agricultural development. We have already
seen ^ that the uncultivated areas of Lower Mesopotamia and the bordering hills of Persia
provide grazing for sheep in their millions and that these sheep move from pasture to
pasture according to the season and, in addition to meat, milk, butter, and other articles
of local diet, meet a small fraction of the demands of foreign markets for wool and hides—
articles which already constitute an important commercial asset of the country. It will
obviously be impolitic in the extreme to sacrifice this asset entirely to the prospect of possibly
greater profits from agriculture or even to abandon the whole of the wool and hide trade to
Persia, whose hills are permanently of a pastoral nature ; while at the same time the abandon
ment of the immense areas necessitated by the present nomadic character of the sheep of
Mesopotamia to grazing at the expense of agriculture is too extravagant a policy to be
embarked on without reservations. I have, however, pointed out that the extension of irriga
tion throughout the plains of Lower Mesopotamia and the expansion of agriculture are
likely to result in the abandonment of nomadic life by the Arab generally or at any rate to a
considerable extent.^ It is obvious, therefore, that the flocks of the Arabs will follow suit and
that, in due course, in place of the immense congregations of sheep, which may be seen under
existing conditions for instance in the Bani Lam plain between the Tigris and the Persian
hills, we shall find smaller flocks more or less permanently attached to the scattered habita
tions, which will spring up wherever irrigation creates opportunities for settled cultivation,
provided that grazing grounds are available. The question of providing such grazing grounds
by statute orjother form of compulsion will, therefore, have to be very carefully considered in
connection with every irrigation scheme taken in hand. Extensive common lands will have
to be left vacant permanenlty or in rotation and the natural pastural habits of the people
will have to be encouraged by the provision of facilities for the marketing of the produce of
their flocks. In such circumstances there is no reason why there should not be a steady
increase in the numbers of sheep in the country from year to year and a corresponding
increase in the quantity of wool and hides—to say nothing of other products—sent to foreign
markets. It is foi this reason that I would advocate the early formation of a strong veterinary
department, whose main function would be to safeguard on scientific lines the pastoral resources
of the country pari passu with the extension of irrigation and cultivation and in such way as
to take full advantage of the former without interfering with the legitimate claims of the
latter. An incidental part of its functions would, indeed, be to improve both in point of
numbers and quality at the present negligible resources of the country in the matter of
ploughmen and other beasts of burden, while it would also take in hand the conservation
of buffaloes, poultry breeding and other spheres of activity tending to the general prosperity
of the country,^ which as a prospective seller of produce should aim at producing rather than
importing all things likely to be required for its own consumption, for the production of
which facilities already exist. Finally it would be the function of this department to work in
close co-operation with the commercial department with a view to educating its own proteges
as to the most profitable channels into which to direct their energies and to keep those
responsible for the development for commercial openings au fait with the capabilities of the
pastoral elements of the country. It is difficult to form an estimate of the proportion of the
whole area of the country which would eventually be reserved for a pastoral programme on
the lines above^ indicated, but, what with the reclamations of the marshes and areas
inaccessible to irrigation and specially reserved common lands taken out of the cultivable
area, it would not seem unreasonable to assume that not less than 2,000,000 acres out of the
total area of 11,000,000 acres will or should eventually be earmarked for pastoral develop
ment and will, therefore, not be available for agriculture.
10. We may now consider collectively the resources of the marsh and saline areas and
the result of development in other directions on them. It may be assumed that every
effort will be made to reduce these areas to a minimum, such reduction being compensated
lor by more scientific treatment of irredeemable tracts with a view to keeping up the supply of
reeds, mats, rushes, salt^ and such necessities of life at least up to the standard set by local
demand. In this connection it must be borne in mind that, prior to the war, the marshes
constituted little but an enduring encumbrance on the country, the whole of whose needs in
the matter of reeds, etc., were easily satisfied by sporadic operations on the fringes of tho
marsh area, and that the great areas under salt were a hindrance to the working of what
might have been an important source of revenue rather than a centre of supply to outlying
parts of the Turkish Empire, It was in these circumstances that these areas were never
fuDy ©xploitcdj but duiing* the war greater demands have been made on their resources in
connection with military operations and the exploitation of the marsh has only been limited
by the supply of labour, while in the case of salt, it has been found more expedient to import
the bulk of our requirements from India rather than to introduce up to date plant for the