Postal services have been considerably developed in Iraq since the war; in addition to the regular sea service by Basra the air routes take letters and parcels. Basra is an important wireless centre, in communication with Cairo, while the most recent devel opment has been the establishment of a station at Rutba wells, in communication with Baghdad, Basra, Amman and Gaza. The telephone service has also been extended. With a touch of legiti mate pride the post office reports the recent extension of the money order business to Esthonia.
Side by side with these developments the older routes and methods of travel exist and are used much as they have been for centuries. The two principal centres are Mosul, still without mod ern methods and Baghdad. Between these two cities are two roads, the shorter, the line taken by the railway follows the right bank of the Tigris via Samarra, Tekrit and Kalat Sherghat. The longer but better road follows the line of the Jebel Hamrin, and is considerably hampered by the necessity of crossing the tributaries of the Tigris which come down from the Persian highlands. It passes through Kirkuk and Erbil and then turns west to Mosul. This road avoids floods and passes through less desolate regions.
It is nearer the centres of population and is usually preferred.
From Mosul roads run west and east. The chief route to the Mediterranean goes to Nisibin and Mardin from which town there are roads to Erzerum and westwards to Alexandretta, and Aleppo, and from this point the railway can be reached. The eastern road to Persia from Mosul runs through Erbil. The Persian road from Baghdad runs along the same way to Khanaki which is now f ol lowed by the railway. This way is the regular route for the large number of pilgrims who visit the shrines of Mesopotamia. There are two main roads across the desert. Both cross the strip between the rivers and follow the right bank of the Euphrates as far as Deir and thence one goes south-west to Tadmor and Damascus or Horns, while the other follows the river to Meskineh whence it crosses to Aleppo. It will be seen that apart from the western road where the prospect of a railway is still uncertain the railways closely follow the old roads with the exception of the Jebel Hamrin route which although it passes through centres of population pre sents considerable difficulties as rivers have to be crossed.
lation, between Museyib and Diwaniya on the Hilla branch corre sponding more or less to the ancient centre of population in Akkad near Kufa on the Hindieh branch and between Nasariye and Suk-esh-Shiyukh. By far the most densely populated part is however the Shatt-al-Arab.
In Upper Mesopotamia the population is sparse. The distribu tion is chiefly as follows. In the middle Euphrates valley, between the two rivers, especially on the northern and north-western side of the plain along the Jebel Sinjar and its foothills, east of the Tigris in the old land of Assur in the area north of the Lesser Zab as far as the line drawn from Erbil to Mosul, and in the Kurdish foothills. Elsewhere the population is limited chiefly to the nomads who wander from the plains to the mountains to find grazing for their cattle. The development of the system of irrigation is likely to extend the range of the population considerably.
The position of the towns corresponds closely to the possible lines of communication. Here as in ancient times there are three main centres. In the north Mosul, the centre of the wheat district and the starting point of the safest caravan route from east to west, corresponds to ancient Nineveh. While of lesser importance than formerly owing to the fact that the development of improved communications have helped its competitors, Baghdad is the capital city of Iraq not only for its mediaeval traditions and memories of the glories of the Caliphs but also because it com mands the inner lines of communications. It takes the place of ancient Babylon, and still more ancient Kish because although in some ways less favourably situated than these it has in addition the command of the landroutes, for which in some ways the Euphrates valley is more favourable. It also forms a port on the navigable waterway of the Tigris, and forms a natural outlet for the trade route and the populous centres along the Diala. In event of the western railway or motor route developing Baghdad will naturally be the railhead of this route. Basra forms the gateway of the south, the only port of Iraq. Although owing to the rapid silting up of the river its position is threatened this may be mended by engineering projects to the Shatt-al-Arab. Not only is Basra the only port of Iraq and therefore the natural outlet of its prod uce but also it forms the capital city of the most populous region in the kingdom.