"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎١‎٥‎٥] (١٧٨٢/١٣١٠)

1155
become both unprofitable and dangerous. It was difficult to ensure
supplies for the troops, who, according to the statements of deserters,
could never obtain any tobacco and were sometimes reduced, for want
of food, to eating the pith of date palms. The forces were clothed
m rags. The Arabs, it was stated, frequently committed aggressions
against the soldiers, while the latter, if they attempted to retaliate, were
handed over by their officers to deputations of murmuring Shaikhs
by whom they were put to death. For these reasons the whole army
of occupation, themselves largely Arabs, looked on the country as
accursed and spoke of it as Bint-Iblis or " Satan's Daughter " ; sickness
and desertion were rife; and many sold their arms and ammunition
to the people of the country, merely in order to provide themselves
with the necessaries of life.
In the circumstances described the Turkish Government seem Almost
to have *decided, in the autumn of 1906, to reduce the garrison of Sra' 1
Qasim from the strength of 2,500 or 2,000 men, to which it had the Turkish 0
been raised by the arrival of Sami Pasha^s escort from Madinah, to November
one of 200, and ultimately to one of 100 men only; and in November 1906 -
the withdrawal commenced. The first to move were the units belonging to
western Army Corps, which left Qasim about the 3rd of fNovember;
and some three weeks later the troops belonging to the Baghdad
command started on their march to the coast. These last, numbering
about 800 men with two field and four light guns, were supplied with
2,000 camels belonging to private owners at Buraidah, 'Anaizah
and Zilfi for transport; they marched in 25 days from Buraidah to
Kuwait, which town the Shaikh did not permit them to enter; and they
eventually reached Basrah in safety. The evacuation, in consequence
of difficulties made by the Qusman about the strength of the posts
to be left, was perhaps more complete than had been intended by the
Porte; and it is clear that not more than 50 men actually remained
in Qasim, while one report placed the number as low as 26.
If the total number of Turkish troops despatched to Qasim from Military and
'Iraq in 1904 and 1906 be estimated at the lowest possible figure, poll u Ca1 *^
a r r\f\ iii results ox the
viz. y UU; and the number of those who either were left in Qasim occupation
^re turned to 'Iraq as soldiers be taken as probably 1,000 altogether, h '
* According to another account the evacuation was carried out by Sami Pasha,
who retired on Madinah, upon his own responsibility, the reason being that he could
get no help, or even instructions, from Constantinople.
t According to the authority quoted in the last footnote Sami Pasha did not fall
back on Madinah until February 1907. The last of the troops withdrawing on that
side had sometimes to subsist on locusts.
82 a
the army of
occupation.