'Sherif of Mecca.' [‎2r] (3/8)

3
Statement of Messenger, Mohammed Ibn Arif Ibn Oreifan.
Alexandria, I8tli August 1915.
Mcsseur/er.—l am a member of the Ilarb tribe, section Masruh, sub
section Zebeid and native of Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Itlnvil which flows to Kadima, a port half
way between Habegh and Jedda.
MefiseiKjcr s route. — 1 he Sherif of Mecca, who is now spending the
summer season at El Taif, gave me a letter to deliver to Air. Storrs, Cairo,
and urged that I should deliver it and return in 15 days.
1 left VA Taif on Thursday the .3rd Kamadan (15th July 1915) arrived
Mecca, Friday morning, left Mecca on Sunday morning, arrived at Jedda on
Monday 7ih Ramadan.
On Thursday, 10th Ramadan, I hired a sanbuk and started from Jedda
with the intention of meeting a British steamer going to Suez, but a strong
wind drove me east to the coast of Asir at a port called El Wash, where
J arrived on Monday, the 14th Ramadan.
Miring another sanbak from El Wasb, and a third from Firsan, I arrived
at Kamran Island on Saturday the 26th Ramadan.
Through the British Consul at Kamran [ got a free passage on a British
steamer to Port Sudan.
Leaving Kamran on Thursday, 1st Shawal, I arrived at Port Sudan on
Saturday, the 3rd Shawal.
I was placed on board Abd EI Munsim the same day and arrived at Suez
this morning, 7th Shawal (18th August 1915), and delivered the Sherif's
letter to Air. Storrs at Alexandria in the afternoon the same day.
Vcvhal Message. —All that the Sherif wishes to convey to Mr. Storrs is
contained in his letter, but on handing the letter at Taif, which was in the
presence of his four sons, Ali, Abdulla, Faisal, and Zeid, the Sherif told me
to tell Mr. Storrs :—'* We are now ready and well prepared."
His son Abdulla then said : " Tell Mr. Storrs that our word is a word of
honour, and we will carry it out even at the cost of our lives ; we are not
now under the orders of the Turks but the Turks are under our orders,"
Arabs' altitude toicards the Turks. —The Arabs of Hejaz are greatly vexed
that no pilgrims came to the Hejaz this year from Egypt, India, Java, &c.,
and they curse this war and those who caused it.
The Turks try to convince the Arabs that the English are the cause of
the war, and that they prevent the Moslems in their Colonies from making
the pilgrimage. But a few Java pilgrims have been able to perform the
pilgrimage this year, having coins via Macalla, Aden, and Suakin ; and they
declared that the English put no obstacles whatever before those who
wished to perform the pilgrimage, but that there were no steamers available ;
all British steamers being employed in the transport of troops to the war.
In the month of Shaban, looo (June 1915) a British aeroplane threw
proclamations to the Arabs at Rabegh and Jedda.
The Arabs read the proclamations, took copies of them to the Wali of
Hejaz, and the Sherif of Mecca and said to them : " It is not the English
but the Turks and their Allies the Germans who caused the war, and
brought all these calamities upon our country.''
In the month of Moharrem 1333 (December 1914), a British man-of-war
appeared at Jedda. The Wali, who had come down from Mecca for this
purpose, was for firing on it.
The Harb Arabs warned the Wali that if he dared fire on the man-of-war
before she fired on the town, they would attack him at once; that if the
Turks were at war with the English the Arabs were not, and so did not
wish the English steamers to forsake their ports.
Early in Rabia Awal 1333 (danuary 1915) there arrived at Jedda from
El Wagh in three sanbuks, 38 (lerman officers and 8 guns, on their way to
El Yemen.
They went to Hodeida vnt Kunfnda and Massowa, and after visiting
Sanaa and other places in El Yemen, they returned to Jedda via Hodeida,
Kunfuda, and Laith, leaving *25 officers and (> guns at Sanaa.