over 200 prisoners and eleven machine guns being captured. During the day Turkish reserves, some 2,500 strong, with several batteries of artillery, made repeated attempts from the south to break through the 11th Cavalry Brigade, but their attacks were unsuccessful. In the evening the 7th Cavalry Brigade, after a march of seventeen hours from Fatha, in which they covered forty-three miles, and crossed the difficult Hadraniya Ford, where several men and horses were drowned, joined the 11th Cavalry Brigade, and took over the protection of the right flank.. All troops on the right bank north of the enemy main body were now under the command of Brig. Gen. Cassels, who conducted the operations which barred the retreat of the Turks to Mosul. The report continues:

The position now was that a stubborn and not yet defeated enemy lay between Cassels's command and the 17th Division. The troops were urgently in need of rest; the 17th Division had been marching and fighting for the preceding four days under most arduous conditions. The 11th Cavalry Brigade had been continuously in action for seventy-two hours, and all had made very long marches. Nevertheless, it was imperative to call on the troops for renewed exertions in order to close in on the enemy and force his surrender. During the night (Oct. 28-29) the Turks made repeated attempts to break through to the north, but were each time repulsed. In spite of exhaustion, darkness, and abominable roads, the troops of the 17th Division responded magnificently to the call made on them, and by 11 A. M. on the 29th had driven back the Turkish rearguard on to the main body, which was holding a position north of Shergat. This position consisted of successive lines of hasty intrenchments commanding a series of ravines which had to be crossed by the attackers. Early in the afternoon the attack was launched against this position in the face of a galling fire. While this was in progress the Turks delivered a heavy and vigorous counterattack, which in one place reached the line held by the supporting battalions before it was stopped and dispersed with heavy loss by an immediate counterattack.

Meanwhile a serious threat from Turkish reinforcements moving down from the Mosul direction developed against Cassels's right flank. These troops established themselves with guns and machine guns on the high bluffs near Hadraniya, but were promptly dealt with by the 7th Cavalry Brigade. The 13th Hussars gal

loped across the open, dismounted under the bluffs, and, led by their Colonel, carried the position by assault, many Turks being accounted for with the bayonet. Mounted pursuit by the remainder of the 7th Cavalry Brigade cleared away further menace from the north, and resulted in the capture of 1,000 prisoners, with two guns and twelve machine guns.

The enemy's avenues of escape northward were now effectively blocked, thanks to the skillful and resolute handling of his detachment by General Cassels, and the firm determination of his troops, who repulsed every attempt by the enemy to break through. Gripped as in a vise, with his men packed in ravines, which were raked by our guns from across the Tigris, Ismail Hakki, the Turkish commander, found himself in a hopeless position, and no relief was in sight. At dawn on Oct. 30, just as our troops were about to renew the attack, white flags appeared all along the Turkish lines, and later on Ismail Hakki surrendered in person.

Thus ended the last battle fought in the war by a Turkish army. The total capture during the operations amounted to 11,322 prisoners, (including 643 officers,) 51 guns, 130 machine guns, over 2,000 animals, 3 paddle steam

ers, and large quantities of gun and rifle ammunition, bombs, a complete bridging train, and war material of all kinds. General Marshall at once pushed on his cavalry toward Mosul. They were within twelve miles of the town when news of the armistice was received, but the place was duly occupied as a "deterrent to disorder."

REOCCUPATION OF BAKU

General Marshall next turns to the reoccupation of Baku. His account reads as follows:

Immediately after the conclusion of the armistice with Turkey on Oct. 31 I received instructions to reoccupy Baku, (in co-operation with our allies,) and all available troops of the 39th (British) Infantry Brigade were ordered to concentrate for this purpose at Enzeli. They were joined there on Nov. 9 by Russian and Armenian troops under General Bicharakhov, who had been driven by the Turks out of Petrovsk, where the Turkish commander, despite representations by both British and French staff officers, refused to recognize the armistice.

At this time Nuri was commanding the Turkish forces in the Caucasus. An en

voy had been dispatched to him on Nov. 4 asking for a definite date to be fixed by the Turks for the evacuation of Baku, but a procrastinating reply was received, and in consequence the envoy was sent back again to him, accompanied by a staff officer, to inform him that Baku would be occupied by a British and Russian force on Nov. 17, by which date Turkish troops, with the exception of a small detachment to preserve order, were to be clear of the town.

At dawn on Nov. 16 a fleet of seventeen transports left Enzeli, escorted by three vessels of the Caspian fleet, which had been armed by the royal navy. During the morning of Nov. 17 they were joined off Nargin Island by General Bicharakhov's Russian force, escorted by the Russian Caspian fleet. The expedition was accompanied by French and American representatives, and the vessel conveying Major Gen. W. M. Thomson, commanding the British troops, entered Baku at the head of the combined fleets flying the flags of Great Britain, France, Russia, and America. Our troops landed without opposition, and Baku was taken over from the Turks, who completed their evacuation of the town during the afternoon.

Many and varied were the questions which had to be dealt with in Baku, among which I may instance shipping control, feeding the inhabitants, (numbering a quarter of a million,) finance, (including the reopening of the Russian State Bank,) settlement of labor disputes in the oil fields, strikes in the town, payment of overdue wages, reopening the Transcaucasus system of railways, getting into working order the oil pipe line from Baku to Batum, &c. All these questions were most ably and firmly dealt with by General Thomson, who was quite evidently the right man in the right place.

Our efforts had to contend with the mutual jealousy and intolerance of various factions, and it is not too much to say that all arrangements for reorganization were hampered by entirely unnecessary delays in withdrawal on the part of the Turks. After retiring from Petrovsk they made further delay at Elizabetopol and other towns, much of which was due to the excessive amount of baggage (mostly loot) which they attempted to remove, together with a reserve of one month's supplies requisitioned by them from the country. A mission had also to be sent to Tiflis to put an end to the hostilities which had commenced between the Georgians and Armenians.

Despite armed Bolshevist ships based on Astrakhan, our armed vessels have permitted of the reopening of the Caspian

trade and fisheries except in the far north.

During the month of December the result of our actions by land and sea along the Caspian littoral was one of steady progress toward pacification as the confidence of the people was gradually gained, and the repatriation of the Armenian and Russian refugees who had been driven out of the Caucasus by the Turks has nearly beeen completed. Toward the end of the year troops from our Saloniki force landed at Batum. Baku and Krasnovodsk passed out of my command on the last day of December, 1918, as it was considered easier to maintain troops at these places by the Batum-Baku line, which was now working with some regularity.

HUGE CAMP OF REFUGEES

The refugee camp of Armenians, Assyrians, Nestorians, and Jelus which I formed at Bakuba in September, now contains some 40,000 men, women, and children, in approximately equal proportions. These refugees have been accommodated in tents, and have been carefully separated according to their various tribes and sects. I hope the repatriation of all these refugees will take place early in the coming Spring, and I have already set machinery in motion with this end in view.

In a final word General Marshall says:

The campaign in Mesopotamia has lasted just four years. From small beginnings, when Fao Fort was captured on Nov. 6, 1914, the ration strength of the force when Mosul was occupied had grown to some 420,000, including labor battalions.

The area of territory of the Turkish Empire which has been conquered and occupied amounts to 114,000 square miles. Actual captures since the beginning of the campaign amount to 45,500 prisoners and 250 guns, together with vast quantities of war material of all descriptions.

These results have been achieved in a country destitute of shade in Summer and impassable owing to floods in wet weather, and are a lasting record of the gallantry and endurance of the officers and men, both British and Indian, who have fought uncomplainingly in spite of heat, thirst, rain, and discomfort for four years in Mesopotamia.

No General had ever, I venture to think, been more loyally served, and I take this opportunity of recording my most grateful thanks to all ranks and all services who have fought so gallantly, worked so hard, and whose devotion to duty has made the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force an army in which all can be proud to have served.