![‘Military report on the British Protectorate of Aden and the Amir of Dala’s territories, with special reports on certain other tribes and adjoining border districts’ [‎23r] (50/490)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000884.0x0003b8/IOR_L_PS_20_59_0052.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘Military report on the British Protectorate of Aden and the Amir of Dala’s territories, with special reports on certain other tribes and adjoining border districts’ [‎23r] (50/490)")
‘Military report on the British Protectorate of Aden and the Amir of Dala’s territories, with special reports on certain other tribes and adjoining border districts’ [23r] (50/490)
The record is made up of 1 volume (243 folios). It was created in 1905-1908. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: 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. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
mm
23
CHAPTER III.
Climate and health report.
In a country of such varying altitudes as the Aden Hinterland, ranging
from the sea-level to 8,000 ft., it follows that a general appreciation of the
climate is impossible. For purposes of description, the country may be
divided into three general classes, (a) the low-lying plain country between
the hills and the seashore, ( 3 ) the lower valleys and river-beds, and (<?) the
elevated plateau and hill country.
(a) The plain, of which the majority consists of sandy desert, or
“ khabt ” is, as may be expected, very hot. In theactual neighbourhood of
the sea, the atmosphere is like that of Aden, moist and steamy, but a very
few miles inland, a marked difference is perceptible, the atmosphere being
of the typical dry, and desert, character. The cooler weather in this plain
lasts for 3 or, at the most, 4 months, from November till February. Unfor
tunately, no data as to temperature are available, but it may be said that
although no actual cold weather can be experienced, the climate at this
season would offer no obstacle to the operations of troops. The nights are
fresh and even up to the end of May, no really hot nights were experienced.
As a rule a good breeze blows during the day and night dying away in the
early morning and evening. The Boundary Commission was working in the
lower country between Jabal Hawab and Shekh Said till the end of May,
and although it had been found advisable to send away the British troops
with the escort and supporting column, in April, as several slight cases of
sun-stroke had occurred and one man died from the heat on the march to
the coast (the troops were in single-fly tents), no sickness from the heat
occurred, either among the British officers, or the native troops. The
labours of the survey-party and their escort were arduous, involving day
long exposure to the sun, and the continual ascent of hills, but no evil
effects resulted. The highest temperature recorded under the single fly
of a tent, during the month of May, was 104 deg. Fahr. This tract may in
fact be summed up as hot but healthy, the only factor for sickness, other
than that due to the sun, being the occasional necessity of drinking brackish
water, which after a few days produced diarrhoea, and occasionally, dysentery.
From May to September, sand-storms are of frequent occurrence, and
thunder, accompanied by heavy showers of rain, sometimes all three com
bined, occur. While the Commission was encamped among the low hills at
Karaba, at a height of about 2,000 feet, in early May, after several oppres
sive days, a heavy thunderstorm was experienced, with a violent wind
which levelled many tents, and torrential rain mingled with hail. The storm
lasted for 2 hours when the river beds became rushing and impassable
torrents. These characteristics do not, however, apply to the lower-lying
country under cultivation, such as the Lahej oasis, where the standing
crops and irrigation channels, not only render the atmosphere more oppres
sive, but also conduce to the breeding of anopheles mosquitoes, and consequ
ent malaria. The neighbourhood of Lahej, and the Tiban above it, have a
bad reputation on this account, and the shortest possible halts compatible
with the necessities of the occasion should be made.
(£) Though somewhat cooler than the low-lying plain-country, the
lower hills, and country near the river beds, are responsible for nearly all the
sickness that occurred among the troops, both native and British, employed
*
About this item
- Content
The volume, a military report compiled in the Intelligence Branch of the QMG’s [Quartermaster General’s] Department and published at the Government Central Printing Office, Simla, is comprised of several sections, as follows:
- section I, a Military Report on the British Protectorate of Aden , prepared by Captain Ernest Arthur Frederick Redl (ff 10-52), and including chapters on: geography; ethnography, with details of the different tribes living in the Protectorate; climate and health; natural resources; harbours and anchorages; communications; fortresses; history; native inhabitants’ administration; the military organisation and strength of native inhabitants; and political relations. A handwritten note is included in the report (f 49), and concerns the entitlements of Protectorate Chiefs to salutes, and issue to them of arms and ammunition, 1906;
- section II, a Report on the Amir of Dala’s [Ad Dali’] Territories , prepared by Major J K Tod (ff 54-118), and including chapters on: geography; ethnography; climate and health; resources; communications; forts and fortified posts; history; administration, and military. Following the report is a gazetteer providing greater detail of the sixteen districts in Dala, including: topography; ruling families and allegiances; villages and population figures, including numbers of fighting men; water resources; agricultural and industrial activities;
- section III, Reports on Haushabi, Subehi and Yafa’i Tribes, Turkish and North Western Border Districts and the River Tiban , divided into chapters, all prepared by Captain Redl unless otherwise specified, on: 1) the Haushabi [al-Ḥawshabī] (ff 120-130), and including a handwritten note, dated December 1905 (f 122), noting that the Sultan of Haushabi has agreed to abide by an agreement of 1895; 2) the Subehi tribes near the Turkish border (ff 130-144); 3) the districts of Turkish Yemen adjoining the British boundary (ff 144-165); 4) Tribes of the north-west frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan. (ff 165-172); 5) a memorandum of the Yafa’i [Yāfi‘] tribe, prepared by Captain Gonville W Warneford (ff 172-183); 6) The Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Tiban (ff 184-185);
- section IV, Routes (ff 186-228), detailing numerous routes between key points in Aden province, noting: distances; stages; nature of the terrain and its suitability for different modes of transport; available resources en route; territories crossed. A (duplicated) confidential memorandum, written by Captain G A F Sanders of the Aden Brigade, dated 24 August 1905, containing additional information for stages 5 and 6 of route 5 has been added to the volume (ff 195-198);
- appendix I, a brief statement on inland trade between Aden and the Arabian mainland, 1903 (ff 229-230).
The volume is extensively illustrated throughout with fold-out maps, plans and illustrations, prepared by the Intelligence Branch (I.B.) and all of which describe the topography and terrain of the region. There are three maps included in a pocket at the end of the volume: a map of the Aden Protectorate (f 242); a view from the ruined village of Lakmat Magharam about one-and-a-half miles west of Sanah [Ṣanʻā'] (f 240); and a road sketch from Khalla through Awabil [‘Awābil] to the upper plateau of the Rubiatein [Ar Rubay‘atayn] tribe (f 241).
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (243 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume is arranged in four sections (numbered I-IV), with a single appendix. Sections I-III are arranged in numbered chapters while section IV is arranged in twenty-three numbered routes. The volume’s contents page (ff 6-8) lists the sections and their respective chapters/routes, with page numbers referring to the volume’s printed pagination system. A general index (ff 231-238) lists placenames referred to in the volume in alphabetically ascending order, also with page numbers referring to the volume’s printed pagination.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the back cover with 243; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
Pagination: the file contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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‘Military report on the British Protectorate of Aden and the Amir of Dala’s territories, with special reports on certain other tribes and adjoining border districts’ [23r] (50/490), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/59, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100034845247.0x000033> [accessed 7 April 2025]
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- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/20/59
- Title
- ‘Military report on the British Protectorate of Aden and the Amir of Dala’s territories, with special reports on certain other tribes and adjoining border districts’
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:11v, 13r:14v, 16r:28v, 30r:30v, 32r:35r, 36r:36v, 38r:56v, 58r:67r, 68r:69r, 70r:79r, 80r:85v, 87r:88r, 89r:89v, 91r:95v, 97r:98v, 100r:101r, 102r:105v, 107r:108r, 109r:113r, 114r:116v, 118r:120v, 122r:124v, 126r:126v, 128r:130v, 132r:132v, 134r:135r, 136r:136v, 138r:157v, 159r:161v, 163r:163v, 165r:165v, 167r:182v, 184r:188v, 190r:190v, 192r:239v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence