Mesopotamia. In March, 1915, General J. E. Nixon was ordered to Basra with renewed instructions "to secure the safety of the oilfields, pipe line and refineries of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company," as well as with orders to consolidate his position for the purpose of "retaining complete control of lower Mesopotamia" and of making possible a subsequent advance on Bagdad. On May 29, in accordance with these instructions, the Sixth Division, under General Sir Charles Townshend, occupied Amara, a town of 12,000 lying about fifty miles north of Basra on the Tigris, seat of the Turkish provincial administration and one of the principal entrepôts of Mesopotamian trade. Beyond this point General Nixon refused to extend his operations unless assured adequate reënforcements, which were not forthcoming. Nevertheless, because of the insistence of Sir Percy Cox that some outstanding success was necessary to retain support of the Arabs, another advance was ordered in the early autumn. On September 29, General Townshend occupied Kut-el-Amara, 180 miles north of his former position.
Then followed the decision to advance on Bagdad—a move which will go down in history as one of the chief blunders of the war, as well as a conspicuous instance of the manner in which political desiderata were allowed to outweigh military considerations. The soldiers on the ground were opposed to the move. General Nixon believed it would be disastrous to advance farther than Kut without substantial reënforcements. General Townshend was convinced that "Mesopotamia was a secondary theatre of war, and on principle should be held on the defensive with a minimum force," and he warned his superiors that his troops "were tired, and their tails were not up, but slightly down," that they were fearful of the distance from the sea and "were going down, in consequence, with every imaginable disease." But the
