'File 8/8 Agency Administration Report 1922-1930' [‎44r] (92/474)

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but my husband.’ Then the little
est not more than ten years old,
horus, ‘ I want my husband.’ They
tearful whenever we came near and
3 d their faces before us. The hunger
st long, however. Our black helper,
the first to win their confidence,
r changed the trend of their tale :
king about their husbands and began
uestions with apparent truthfulness.
>y originally came from Jebel ez
ardin, and if the government really
, they would like to go back to their
remembered they had been stolen
' small, but of their former life they
3 . Having known no religion but the
been forced upon them by their cap-
ed, of course, that they were Moslems,
information concerning refugee
ih and Baghdad had been sought and
we learned that there was an
igee camp at Nahr Omar, outside of
>r Daly then asked us to take them
3 ur of them went; the fifth refused to
y last minute. She is still with us
;urn to her husband, who has been
l X,
sent for from Qutar and with whom she will live if
he consents to staying in Bahrein under British
surveillance.
Busrah Mission Station is now woven into the
tale. We cast ourselves upon them, refugees and
all, for upon our arrival there it was made clear
that the camp at Nahr Omar would not accept the
girls for it is a Christian camp and they still
insisted they were Moslems. And the British
authorities in Busrah, as in Bahrein, had no place
to keep the girls except in prison. Rather than see
them taken there, we put them up at the Mission,
while the Busrah authorities wired to Baghdad for
advice concerning their disposal. This was slow in
coming. The four girls attended the Mission service
on Sunday morning, and many curious glances
were cast in their direction. The next day,
and for many days after, they were visited by
Busrah Christians, Syrians and Assyrians who
had lost wives, daughters or sisters before and
during the war. They came in droves, in the hope
that among these four refugees they might find one
of their lost ones.
Finally word came from Baghdad that they
should be interviewed again by Major Berry in the
presence of a Moslem representative. This inter-
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