he best-lit factory they showed very little excess at all; evidently there is no inherent difficulty in providing n absolutely effective system of artificial lighting.

Other simple preventive measures were suggested by aking a comparison of the frequency with which the arious types of accident occurred in men and women, nd in the different factories. An excessive frequency nplies some special cause; and, by identifying the cause, is generally possible to abate or abolish it. For istance, women were found to be much more liable han men to sprains. Taking the relative number of uts as a basis, the women at the fuse factory experinced between two and three times more sprains, chiefly prains of the wrist. These sprains were mainly suffered n pushing home the clamping lever of the lathes. The ever was designed to suit men's stronger wrists, but it vould be quite a simple matter, by lengthening or othervise altering it, to render it suitable for women. The factory where 6-inch shells were made, sprains were nore frequent, both in men and women, than at the -inch shell factory. The reason of this was that the workers, in order to save time and trouble, frequently moved the shells about by hand, instead of with the ackle provided. The 6-inch shells weighed 80 to 100 os. each, and so were just within their lifting powers; ut 9-inch shells, which weighed 360 lbs. in the rough, ecessitated the use of tackle, and so threw no abnormal Erain upon the muscles.

At

Again, the women at the 9- and 15-inch shell factory uffered about eight times more frequently from burns, nd four times more frequently from eye accidents, than he women at the fuse factory, though their cuts and prains corresponded in number. This excess of accidents as due chiefly to the steel turnings from these big shells eing much larger and hotter, and more liable to jump ut from the object turned, than the aluminium and rass turnings met with in fuse manufacture. But it is elf-evident that the hands could easily be protected from urns by wearing gloves, and the eyes from foreign odies by wearing protective spectacles.

The frequency with which septic cuts were treated aried greatly at the different factories; and, as a septic ound is much more likely to interfere with work than

a fresh wound treated immediately, it is important that everything possible should be done to induce the workers to attend the ambulance room directly they experience an accident, even if only a slight one. The method of suasion adopted at one of the factories was to allow a pass out of the works for the rest of the day (without loss of time-rate wages) for such of the freshly-treated accident cases as were thought to require it, but no such pass for the septic cases. Somewhat unexpectedly, the women were found to be more careless in attending the ambulance station than the men.

As already stated, the evidence regarding the causation of accidents which I have myself been able to collect relates to four munition factories only. It is brought forward, not as a complete investigation of the subject, but as a sample of what can be done at any factory possessing an ambulance room and adequate records of cases treated. At all large factories the accident data should be classified and tabulated regularly by one of the nurses, or by an intelligent clerk, acting under the supervision of a medical man. Thereby invaluable evidence as to the causation of accidents would gradually be accumulated; and in course of time preventive measures would suggest themselves. The accidents occurring in different industries vary greatly in their frequency, their severity, and their type; consequently, preventive mea sures adapted for accidents in one industry would not necessarily suit those met with in another industry. Hence, the more widely the examination of accident records is extended, the more successful will be the efforts to prevent them. Though many of them may prove unavoidable, it is probable that even in the bestmanaged factories they may be reduced by 30 per cent, and in badly managed factories, by 60 per cent. or more.

H. M. VERNON.

Art. 9.-TURKISH RULE AND BRITISH ADMINISTRA-
TION IN MESOPOTAMIA.

IMPATIENT critics of the Peace Conference have not
always made allowance for the immensity of its task
and the need for careful discussion of its innumerable
problems. Delay was inevitable; but it is unfortunate
that the country to suffer the longest delay in the
decision of her affairs should be Turkey. To the
Oriental, delay betokens weakness; and weakness is
the quality he most abhors. Justice he commends, but
it is action that he respects. The indecision of to-day
will embarrass whatever Government is eventually
entrusted with the task of reconstruction.

While the war continued, it was vitally important that the resources of Mesopotamia should be developed for the maintenance of the troops in the country; and, thanks to the War Council, rapid progress was secured. But money that in war was available for the stimulation of production as a military resource cannot during an armistice be applied for the development of an occupied enemy country. Affairs in Mesopotamia are therefore at a standstill, a standstill the more disappointing because of the successful reconstructive work carried out during active operations and dating back to the earliest phases of the campaign. When the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force left India in the autumn of 1914, Sir Percy Cox was attached to the Staff of the G.O.C. as Chief Political Officer. He was joined in January 1915 by Mr H. Dobbs, I.C.S., as Revenue Commissioner. On them fell the burden of setting the administration of the newly occupied territories in order. It is difficult to appreciate their work without some understanding of the political and economic condition of Irak under Turkish rule.

I. Irak under Turkey.-Basra and Baghdad, the two vilayets comprised in Irak' were not treated by the Porte as a part of Turkey proper but as an alien conquered territory, the inhabitants of which were subjects of the Empire, not citizens. This distinction in tatus was most obvious in the land laws. In Turkey ights somewhat similar to 'squatter's rights' in English aw could be acquired against the State by continuous

possession of land, and converted into title on registra tion and payment of a small fee, with the result that practically all arable land became the property of in dividuals. Irak, on the contrary, was a conquered province and its soil the booty of the victors. The only exceptions were sites of towns and villages together with their immediate precincts, and land given by the Sultan at the time of conquest in reward for services rendered. No other land could be owned privately; and all encroachments were jealously contested.

The Ottoman conquest left the country almost waste; and, as no one will reclaim land in which he is to have no sufficient interest, Irak, for all its fertility, remained undeveloped. In 1871 Midhat Pasha, the one statesmanlike Vali Baghdad has seen, endeavoured to remedy this evil, and obtained a decree sanctioning the sale of land on a tenure known as tapu itassaraf. Under this decree purchasers acquired a transferable right of undisturbed possession of defined areas for purposes of cultivation; but the right fell short of full ownership because of certain limiting conditions. It was the hope of Midhat Pasha that Arab possessors would be attracted by this opportunity of obtaining on easy terms a legal title to the land they occupied. But the Arab saw in it a subtle design to circumscribe his liberty. He believed he was being tempted to forsake the freedom of the tent for the cramped atmosphere of the town, and to become there with liable to conscription and service away from his beloved desert. In despair Midhat Pasha extended his offer to the public, and succeeded in attracting a certain number of investors, of whom a few only were Arabs, the majority being Jews or Armenians. The new proprietors made such terms with the Arab occupiers as they could, advanced money, dug canals, and extended cultivation. But Midhat Pasha's career came to a tragic end; and difficulties arose. The Arabs, accustomed from time immemorial to occupy these newly formed estates, resented the payment of rent to the proprietors; while the authorities at Constantinople were suspicious that, under cover of the new law, land might be improperly lost to the State. So it came about that further sales were stopped, and the State has remained the owner of almost all the soil of Irak. Yet though dominion has

remained de jure with the Turk, possession for the most part has continued de facto with the Arab; and between Turkish officials and Arab tribesmen there has been continual conflict. The immediate neighbourhood of settled towns such as Baghdad, Hillah, and Basra was quiet enough, but beyond were the agricultural tribes, and beyond them the desert where passage was not always safe and payment of revenue was always insecure.

Irak was thus no part of Turkey, either in legal status or popular sentiment. Nevertheless the adminisErative machinery employed was that which was universal throughout the Empire. For the purposes of executive government, the vilayet, or province, presided Over by the Vali was divided into mutassarifliks (divisions) under a Mutassarif, or Commissioner; and these divisions were subdivided into districts under Kaimmakams, or deputy commissioners, the districts again being partitioned into mudirates. The Turk, however, never grasped the principle of decentralisation; and each high official combined in himself all the lower offices for the immediate locality in which he resided. A petition presented in the mudirate of Nil, in the district of Hillah, In the mutassariflik of Diwaniyah, would have to pass through each of the offices named before it reached the Vali; a similar petition originating in the suburbs of Baghdad would be entertained both originally and finally in the office of the Vali himself. For the maintenance of order the Vali controlled a gendarmerie, of which chere were scattered posts throughout the province; and roops were stationed at Baghdad. Village policing was arranged usually by the villagers themselves, the practice on the Euphrates being to ensure against theft by oribing the chief of the most notorious tribe of thieves. On paper this appeared as a contract entered into between the chief and the village for watch and ward, the chief undertaking to make good any loss. There was a fixed evy on buildings, and this was collected by the chief, who saw to it that burglaries took place if his 'dues' were not paid. The system was simple and worked on che whole satisfactorily.

The power exercised by the Executive used to be despotic, but the revolution of 1908 affected to secure a