‘Koweit [Kuwait]. A report compiled in the Intelligence Branch, Quarter Master General’s Department’ [‎17] (31/66)

i7
There were five or six such banners, or contingents, in camp,
and the total numbers present were said to be 1,800 men. The
force was turned out for inspection, when some 1,100 or 1,200
men, only, put in an appearance ; but it is only fair, perhaps, to
add that this parade was ordered at short notice, and there may
therefore have been an abnormal number of absentees.
The men are fine, well set up, and mostly tall. They were
all armed with Martini-Henry rifles, or carbines, and carried
well-filled cartridge belts. The uniformity of their dress and
equipment was very striking, and compared most favourably
with the retainers (one can hardly dignify them with any more
military designation) of the Sultan of Muscat. But fine men as
they are, it is hard to believe that, as an armed force, they would
do any good against any organized or disciplined troops, without
European leading and training.
On the occasion of the review referred to, the troops
paraded by contingents, of about 200 men each. There was
much singing and barbaric "music" with tom-tom accompani
ment, while the leaders danced a slow rhythmic waltz, in front of
their respective companies. It is hard to take a force which is
encouraged by a simulated epileptic fit, after aimless pirouett-
ino-, altogether very seriously, except when pitted against others
like themselves.
From descriptions of some of the fights which have taken
place between Mubarak's and Ibn Rashid's forces, it seems that
their tactics, like everything else, are those of their forefathers.
Palgrave describes the tactics of an Arab battle as being simple
but not wholly devoid of skill. The cavalry come to the front
and provoke the engagement, some one way and some another,
hnt never straight for their opponents; a pretty display cf
horsemanship follows, with a dropping fire of matchlocks. Mean
while the camels and their riders, who form the main body,
remain behind in reserve. When the action has once become
serious, which is the case so soon as blood has been shed on
either side, the camels are made to kneel down, each becoming
a kind of field work for two musketeers under his cover; the
cavalry open out, and firing begins in good earnest, till flank
attacks or an excess of confidence on one side or the other,
bring on a general assault. Some fight on foot, some mounted,
and the mele continues till one side gives way. The people
of Nejd distinguish themselves from the rest of their Arab
countrymen by preferring slaughter to booty ; elsewhere two
killed and three wounded is generally the outside.
T owns, &c.
The town of Koweit lies on a small projection Any method by which the earth’s curved surface may be transposed (or projected) on to a flat surface. , or tongue
of land, (which terminates in Ras-al-Ajuza), on the southern
shore of the great bay to which it gives its name. The town
extends about a mile along the beach; it is provided with
numerous substantial stone breakwaters, which form tidal har
bours for native craft. The beach dries out to a considerable
Tactics.