File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎14v] (37/834)

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— 428 —
General.
The intentions of Nuri Shaalan continue to disquiet the
Turks, who evidently have no doubt that he means business on
the side of the Revolt. He has sent letters to Sherif Abdullah,
who is sending 1 him same arms in return. Abdullah has
reported the adhesion of the sheikhs of “ Hait and Haweet”
(so the names reached us), whose villages are situated he says
“ three nights from Hail between el-Hutaimieh and Aneizah ” and
“would form a base for an attack on Hail.” He means
undoubtedly the old “ free ” villages, Hayat and Huweyyat, in the
Harrat Kheibar, which are inhabited mainly by negroes (these
withstand the local malaria better than anyone else) with a mixture
of half-caste and settled Huteim, but are owned by absentee Wuld
Suleiman Sheikhs. Their adhesion is, doubtless, a consequence
of the recent capture of Teima by the Anazeh : for, like that
place, these eastern Kheibar villages used to own allegiance to
Ibn Rashid though never to the Turks. Abdullah wrote to his
father, that these were “ the only villages with palms left to Ibn
Rashid after losing Qasim—Their people are rich, numerous,
well-mannered, accomplished and intelligent.” Abdullah proposes
to send them 1,000 rifles and to appoint a Judge in el-Hayat.
The Austrian instructors at Maan are having a hard time
for lack of decent food and money, the value of Turkish paper
having depreciated over eighty per cent in the locality.
Cholera at Akaba.
Up to the latest advices it has not been possible to make a
bacteriological determination, but the responsible medical officer
does not doubt that it is true cholera. Between the 14th and
24th there were twenty-five cases and twenty deaths, all among
Bedouins and Sherifan soldiers, except one Egyptian, a telephone
operator, who died. On the 24th there was no fresh case.
The infection was carried, it seems, by Arabs who had come from
Tebuk ; but we have no independent evidence of cholera there.
The Turks, on the other hand, know of the Akaba cholera.
The medical authorities are finding preventive measures difficult,
owing to the dirt and indiscipline of the Arabs, and the number
of open wells.
Disaffection among the Harb.
It has been expected that tribes of central and southern
Hejaz would soon give trouble on realising that the King’s policy
is to ignore their claims for subsidy since military operations
ceased in their area. Disaffection has come to a head first among
the Hawazim Harb. It is reported that a French Moslem officer
and five Algerians, accompanied by two Sherifs, have been held
U P ^y a force of 200 men three days out from Yambo on their
way to Sherif All’s camp, and robbed of everything except
sufficient food to take them back to Yambo. The tribesmen
concerned declared their intention of doing likewise to all and