File 705/1916 Pt 2 'Arab revolt: Arab reports; Sir M Sykes' reports' [‎211v] (420/450)

KOWEYT AND THE TRUCIAL COAST A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. .
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PABT II.
POLITICAL EVENTS IN THE FIELDS OF OPERATIONS.
Aden.
G.O.C. telegraphed to C.I.G.S. on the 1st August [6630 G.I.] that an agent
returned from Hajariya had reported all quiet; and on the 2nd [6640 G.L] that an
agent who left Kataba on the 17th July reported all quiet and that the Imam’s troops
were tax-collecting in the vicinity of Damt. The latter agent reported a story current
at Dala that the Sherif had sold Jeddah to the British and that he had also sold his
religion. On the 3rd August he telegraphed to C.I.G.S. [6650 G.I.] that the situation
was unchanged ; also that there had been constant reports for the last fortnight of
Turks sending ammunition to Subar and Fiyush.
South Mesopotamia.
On the 28th July the \iceroy telegraphed the concurrence of his Government in
the objections of General Lake to Arab propaganda and the establishment of a
newspaper. [See “ Arabian Report ” N.S. Ill, p. 4].
On the 4th August a telegram was sent to Sir H. McMahon [No. 653] stating
that the G.O.C. in Mesopotamia thought that a proclamation from the Sherif might
have effect if distiibuted. The present proclamation being considered unsuitable, the
High Commissioner was asked to press the Sherif to issue another.
On the 2nd August the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. telegraphed to the Viceroy [P. 2957] that the
Arab Bureau had been asked if a literary supplement to the u Hakikat ” could be
produced in Egypt for insertion at Basra.
G.O.C. reported on the 7th August that there was no change m the situation.
PART III.
MISCELLANEOUS.
'Ihe Present Position in Syria.
Affai^— f0ll0Wing ^ & C0Py ° f S deSpatch to the Secre tary of State for Foreign
My Lord . “ 9 ’ Buckingham Gate, London, August 8, 1916.
1 have the honour to inform you that I proceeded to Paris in accordance
with instructions received on the 1st August.
nr • i 011 f rr i vm j? m Par]S 1 me t M. Picot, who introduced me to M. Eddeh a
Ohristian Arab of Beyrut, who is a commissaire in the French Navy. M. Eddeh
left the Island of Er Ruad, off the coast of N. Syria, on the 1st July He had
been on shore on the mainland, and travelled considerably in the interior in the
early summer, and was m close touch with the interior situation in Syria and
N. Palestine up to the time he left. M. Eddeh impressed me as a very sober-
minded man, and not inclined to exaggerate.
“ He stated that the situation of the Turkish Government was precarious in
Syria, and that the Christians and Moslem Arabs had come too-ether in a most
surprising wa J to misery and oppression. He remarked that there had
never, even at the first outbreak of the Young Turk revolution in 1908 been such
a rapprochement between the people of the two religions. There had been no
actual outbreak of rebellion in Syria up to the time when he left, but the situation
was only kept m hand by the Government striking hard at those leaders they