'Report on Najd Mission 1917-1918' [‎5v] (10/60)

6
aH
the 16th February, discussing Arab affairs in relation to the work of the Mis
sion with the High Commissioner and the Officers in charge of the Arab
Bureau.
On the 16th February, matters now being in a fair way towards final
settlement, I left Cairo on my rteurn journey to Basrah ma Suez, Karachi and
Bombay and on the 24th March, 1918, arrived at my destination.
By this time Sir P. Cox had departed on his way to Egypt and England
and 1 decided to remain at Basrah until the orders of His Majesty's Govern
ment on the final proposals made in his telegram. No. B-29, dated the 9th
March, 1918, from Maskat, wercreceived.
On the 26th March, I received a telegram from you informing me that
Sir P. Cox' proposals had received the sanction of His Majesty's Government,
and I was thus free to return to Ibn Sand to communicate the result of my
negotiations.
My original plan was to return to Ibn Sand, who was then said to be in
Hasa, via Kuwait, but the arrival of messengers from Dhari ibn Tawala, then
residing at Hafar in accordance with my previous instructions, decided me to
travel up the Batin to Dhari's Camp and thence down to Ibn Saud.
Accordingly on the 28th March, 1918, I travelled by rail to Zubair, and
on the following morning struck into the interior. Arriving at Dhari's camp
near Hafar on the 2nd April I rested there the two following days discussing
the affairs of the desert, and on the 5th April, accompanied by Dhari himself,
I resumed my march southward to Ibn Saud.
Arriving at Shaib Shauki on the Arma plateau on the 11th April, I found
that Ibn Saud had arrived there the same day from Hasa. Here I accordijigly
remained till the 16th April discussing matters with Ibn Saud and then
accompanied him to Riyadh which we reached on the 19th April.
The result of my discussions with Ibn Saud had been an undertaking on
his part to mobilize for action against Ibn Rashid in the coming Ramdhan
(June-July) and to spend the intervening period in laying in necessary provi
sions and making other preparations for his operations.
The prospect of sitting idle at Riyadh till the middle of July was far from
attractive, and I was fortunate enough to obtain Ibn Saud's somewhat half
hearted consent to my spending at least some part of this interval in a tour
to the southern limits of Najd. Accordingly on May 6th I set out from Riyadh
via Hair, Kharj, Aflaj'and Sulaiyyil to Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Dawasir, whence, travelling
via the plateau of Tuwaiq and visiting Haddar, Hamar, Sitara, Ghail and
Hauta, I returned to Riyadh on the 24th June after an absence of exactly
60 days.
On the 5th August, 1918 (Ibn Saud's eldest son, Turki, having already
made an unsuccessful attempt to open the offensive against the Shammar) all
ivas ready for the beginning of the main campaign, and I accompanied Ibn
Saud from Riyadh, via Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Hanifa, Washm, Sirr, Mudhuib and Anaiza,
to Buraida, where we arrived on the 25th August, 1918.
Here some further delay ensued while the various contingents of Ibn
Saud's striking force collected, and it was not till the 9th September, 1918,
that Ibn Saud himself, refusing for reasons to be explained later to allow me.
to accompany him, launched out against Hail. I spent the period of his
absence at Anaiza and rejoined him at Qusaiba after his return from Hail on
the 28th September, 1918.
An immediate repetition of his attack on Hail not being practicable, we
returned with the whole force of some 5,000 men to Tarafiya and thence to
Buraida, where on the 4th October I received the somewhat disconcerting
instructions of H. M.'s Government to close down operations, and in this
connection decided to go down to the coast, which I reached at Kuwait, via
Shamasiya, Zilfi, Dijani and Qaraa on the 16th October.
In all I spent some nine months of the period under report actually on
Arabian soil and during that time covered some 2,600 miles* in travel. The
greater part of my journey from Riyadh to Taif and the wholef of my
journey from Riyadh to Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Dawasir and back was through a country hither
to, I believe, never visited by Europeans, while the circumstances of my travel
enabled me, even in better known tracts such as Washm, Sirr and the Qasim
itself, to visit villages lying off the beaten track of previous travellers. My
map sketches have been in part compiled by Lieut.-Colonel C. Ryder, C.I.E.,
D.S.O., Director of Surveys, Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force.
€. Shaikhs of the Tub air Hinterland.
On the arrival of the Mission at Basrah, where a short delay was necessary
for the purpose of collecting stores and equipment, I found that invitations
"According to my dead reckoning calculations which were for the most part at 3 miles per
hour over good ground and 2^ to 2| miles per hour over rough or heavy going,
fExcepting the District of Kharj which was visited by Lieut.-Colonel Cunliffe Owen in
January, 1918, during my absence from Riyadh.