'Monograph on the Aden Hinterland as touching the States of Dthala, Yafa', Alawi, etc., by Major H F Jacob, late Political Agent, Dthala.' [‎12r] (28/48)

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Further the amounts we pay in stipends to the few are in many cases
monies thrown away. In Yafa’ we have several stipendiaries many of whom
are men of straw, and though by treaty with them free access by either con
tracting party into the other’s country is stipulated for, we are well aware
that our entrance into Yafa’ is not practicable. If it is argued that it is
further not desirable I would reply that omission to put into execution the
letter of a treaty is prejudicial to our prestige and predominance where the
take-all-he-can-get Arab is concerned. It is construed weakness to fall shtirt
of the possibilities a Treaty has to offer, and these clauses had better been
omitted.
Sultan Kahtan of the Dthubi faction, when he return* to power; the
present Muflahi Sheikh ’Abdul Rahman, and the House of Mausatta, represent
ed by the Askar family, are men of some importance, but the others are
impotent to aid us. Haidara, the late Turkish nominee, might judiciously have
made up the only possible quartette. The rest are all mere receptacles for
doles which by their insignificance are of no avail in a country which is pre
eminently democratic; where each man is a law to himself, and where, taking
Sultans only, we have some 360 persons who, left out in the cold, must be
active resisters of our advances. The existence of stipendiaries means the
necessity of large payments by way of Darbar A public or private audience held by a high-ranking British colonial representative (e.g. Viceroy, Governor-General, or member of the British royal family). Presents since every stipendiary
is privileged to send in recommendatory letters for the hospitable treatment
of his Sheikhs in Aden. As Yafa was outside the pale of Turkish interference
the same results would have occurred had we restricted the number of our
stipendiaries there. These doles then are almost entirely unremunerativo.
Again, the Kotaibi Chief does not control his tribesmen, but they him. Money
j)ut into the tribal pocket would do more for the road the Kotaibi has to
protect than a stipend paid to Muhammad Saleh, the figurehead.
The same remark applies in less degree to the Alawi Chief.
35. The Shaib country is practically independent, but the House of
Mausatta claims to have a voice in its affairs. The stipendiary there is one Ali
Mani whose beggarly emoluments of Rs. 20 per mensem have excited the
animosity of the many Sheikhs of equal importance, so that as regards his
utility to us, Ali Mani is a non-entity. Mutahar &li of Dthathina in this
same country gets § 7 per mensem to safeguard the pillars, which have never
theless on three occasions been demolished. I admit that the safeguarding
of boundary pillars is a difficult business in an unsettled and unexplored
country, where a single mischief-monger can do his will without let or hinder-
ance, and so long as the money paid for preserving the pillars intact is utilised
for repairs we are no losers, but equally so the recipient is no gainer, and our
political influence cannot progress. This is all destructive criticism, but it is
difficult to evolve anything of constructive value at this stage since we have
left the country to its fate. It is my own opinion and I give it for what it
is worth, and to prove that we have intervened in some matters where inter
vention was premature, whereas it had been more politic to have used the tribes
nearer to Hthala where they were more readily amenable to our direct influ
ence, and to have cultivated tlieir acquaintance to the full. These would have
served as a useful object-lesson to those farther afield. This scheme was often
suggested to me by Arabs of standing in and out of Dthala.
36. I pass now to the Turkish border more especially with reference to
its influence on Hthala politics and the Amir himself. The tribes on the border
have no interest in the demarcation. The line between us and the Turks has
no meaning to them, commerce on both sides dates from time immemorial.
Solemn compacts have been from time to time concluded between now divided
tribes. The Amir of Hthala has often enlisted the aid of the Mures tribesmen
to N. E. of Kataba to assist him against his own recalcitrant tribesmen, while
Yafa’ has had similar engagements with Juban and Na’wa, the former country
having now passed over to the Turkish Kaza of Rada’a. Only the other day
the House of Mausatta went to Juban to investigate a case between it and Na'wa
which looks for advice to Mausatta. It is difficult to check those transactions
which have the sanction of time. In the late Amiri-Shairi affair, the Shairis
were assisted by Mures arms. By corresponding with the Kaim Makam of