'Field notes: Mesopotamia. General Staff, India. February, 1917.' [‎35v] (77/350)

62
comes up instead. There is nothing to keep the houses cool,
no verandahs, only an expanse of country brick that retains
the heat during the day and gives it out again when the sun
is down. Houses of this nature cannot be used as Hospitals
and are often unfit to use even as store-rooms. So new houses
have to be built but before the walls are begun the ground
must be laboriously raised by earth, brought to the spot in
boats or in mule-panniers, otherwise the subsoil-water will rise
up into the basement during floods, destroy the foundations
and swamp everything.
As regards supplies, those locally produced are of little
value in supplementing those imported. This is not so much
because local supplies are scarce as because, owing to trans
port difficulties both by land and water, and to the attitude
of some of the Arab tribes, the local supplies cannot be got
in from the surrounding country in adequate amounts. Some
local products, such as fresh vegetables and potatoes, are cer
tainly scarce, but others, e.g., rice, salt, barley, bhoosa, and
ghee would suffice to meet all demands could they but be
collected. Potatoes and vegetables present an additional
problem in that the heat is liable to make them uneatable in
a short time. Where cold storage is impossible, onions will
spi'out and other vegetables rot, if they cannot reach the troops
quickly and be consumed at once. Fresh meat could also be
obtained in ample quantities where it is possible to induce the
Arabs to bring in their cattle or to allow 7 sheep to come down
from the Persian Hills. Grazing for horses exists in places,
and during part of February and March 1916 the horses w'ith
the Tigris Corps were able to dispense with the Government
fodder, but grass cannot be depended on for long, and it rarely
grows where it is most w r anted.
The impracticability of drawing to the full on local products
seriously affects the question of river-transport and a great
.deal of tonnage is absorbed in carrying to the fighting troops
.■supplies of all kinds that in any other theatre of war would
/certainly be obtainable on the spot. Eiver transport is further
ihandicapped by physical and climatic conditions affecting the
Hye-rs themselves. In the low water season (August to - Feb-
v>uary, both inclusive) the draught of vessels is limited to a
maximum of 20 feet at the Outer Fao Bar, and this only
under favourable conditions on the top of the tide; trans
shipments are therefore often necessary. Between Basrah and