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the autumn to the winter months, and fell again with the advent of spring. It was found that at one factory the women experienced on an average nearly two and a half times more accidents when the external temperature was at or below freezing-point than when it was above 48°, while the men experienced twice as many accidents. At intermediate temperatures the accidents were intermediate in number, or there was a clear and close relationship between accident frequency and temperature. Hence, there can be no doubt that low temperature is one of the most important causes of accidents. Moreover, it is a cause which can be and ought to be avoided in practically all indoor industries. Glaring instances of its occurrence are often noted by factory inspectors. We read of a clothing factory with a temperature of 39°, of a large provender mill with one of 28°, and of the carding room at a flax mill with one of 35.5°. Abnormally high temperatures are likewise not infrequent. Temperatures of 109° and 113° are recorded in cotton mills, and of 106° and 111° in print works.

*

Another well-known cause of accidents which can easily be remedied is defective artificial lighting. The Departmental Committee on Lighting in Factories and Workshops, in the weighty report issued by them in 1915, adduced indirect evidence to show that inadequate lighting is a contributory cause of accidents; and their conclusions were confirmed by the evidence of witnesses regarding accidents in foundries, shipbuilding yards and cotton mills. I myself did not obtain very striking data, as the factories in which I worked were all well lit. The only type of accident which was considerably affected by artificial light was that of foreign bodies in the eye. Apparently the workers bend more over their work when the lighting is artificial, and so get more metal turnings and particles of emery jumping into their eyes. Though, as already stated, night-shift accidents, taken as a whole, were distinctly less frequent than day-shift accidents, eye accidents were 30 to 60 per cent. more numerous in the worst-lit factory. At two of the other factories they showed a smaller excess than this, but at

* Annual Report of Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops, 1912, pp. 81 and 124.

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

Other simple preventive measures were suggested by making a comparison of the frequency with which the various types of accident occurred in men and women, and in the different factories. An excessive frequency implies some special cause; and, by identifying the cause, it is generally possible to abate or abolish it. For instance, women were found to be much more liable than men to sprains. Taking the relative number of cuts as a basis, the women at the fuse factory experienced between two and three times more sprains, chiefly sprains of the wrist. These sprains were mainly suffered in pushing home the clamping lever of the lathes. The lever was designed to suit men's stronger wrists, but it would be quite a simple matter, by lengthening or otherwise altering it, to render it suitable for women. At the factory where 6-inch shells were made, sprains were more frequent, both in men and women, than at the 9-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 tackle provided. The 6-inch shells weighed 80 to 100 lbs. each, and so were just within their lifting powers; but 9-inch shells, which weighed 360 lbs. in the rough, necessitated the use of tackle, and so threw no abnormal strain upon the muscles.

Again, the women at the 9- and 15-inch shell factory suffered about eight times more frequently from burns, and four times more frequently from eye accidents, than the women at the fuse factory, though their cuts and sprains corresponded in number. This excess of accidents was due chiefly to the steel turnings from these big shells being much larger and hotter, and more liable to jump out from the object turned, than the aluminium and brass turnings met with in fuse manufacture. But it is self-evident that the hands could easily be protected from burns by wearing gloves, and the eyes from foreign bodies by wearing protective spectacles.

The frequency with which septic cuts were treated varied greatly at the different factories; and, as a septic wound 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 measures 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 ADMINISTRATION 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 status was most obvious in the land laws. In Turkey rights somewhat similar to 'squatter's rights' in English law 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 individuals. 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 therewith 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

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