File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎6v] (21/834)

I
— 415 —
keep 150 Bedouins in a camp 1,500 yards from the line for three
days without giving the Turks warning of our presence, m spite
of the regular patrols passing up and down the line. Ihis
means that the rank and file of the Arabs, as well as the sheikhs,
did as I ordered. The complete destruction of a captured train,
and annihilation of relief parties, will he easy, as soon as I have
the Indian M.G. section to support me in the actual action. The
Lewis gunners on this occasion were two ol my Arab servants,
trained by me in one day at Rum. They killed twelve of the
enemy’s casualties, but of course went off to get booty
immediately afterwards.
M. Pisani, Faiz el-Moayyad, and Lufti el-Asali, are now, 1
think, competent to lay mines by themselves. 1 was very well
satisfied with all three of them.”
Intelligence.
Imperative orders were sent by King Husein to Zeid to
move on (see p. 899). He announced, in reply, that he would
leave Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Ais for Wejh about the 10 th, and on the 15th he
actually arrived at the latter place with his personal following.
When Ins army comes in, he asks that 1,000 men with 400- horses
and forty camels, be shipped to Akaba, while the rest march by
land. However, though Feisal still asks for Zeid and his force,
it is questionable whether they will be of any use at Akaba, and
it is not yet certain what will be done with them. The appear
ance of cholera at Akaba (see below) futher complicates the
matter. Xo solution of the financial question between the brothers
has been arrived at yet, Feisal professing his inability to send Zeid
the money to pay off his arrears. Zeid, however, has now reduced
his claim from £30,000 to £ 10 , 000 . The King has promised
£100,000 to Feisal whenever he shall definitely have broken the
railway between Maan and Medina, and Feisal intends to make an
effort very soon to earn this reward once for all.
As for raids on the line, we print above (p. 412) Major
Lawrence’s report on his success between Bir esh-Shediyah and
Akabat el-Hejazia on October 6 . The enemy’s official return
of killed in this affair is twenty. In the previous raid at Harret
Ammar the Turks admit twenty-seven killed, forty-two wounded,
and two engines destroyed. These two disasters have led to orders
being issued by the G.O.C. Syria and Western Arabia (new title
of Ahmed Jemal Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. “ the Great,” who has now, it appears,
returned to his post at Damascus) about extra guards and
armament of trains. The Southern commands (H.E.F. and 2nd
Composite Force), however, are not able to carry these into effect
for lack of sufficient troops and machine-guns. Meanwhile the
G.O.C., H.E.F., has been experimenting with land-mines to be
placed in the passes (or rather to be announced as about to be
placed there) to frighten Bedouins away from the southern