File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎57r] (122/834)

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While the Turks hold the railway line itself in fair force, they
keep very few iney in such places as Tafileh and Kerak off the
track, and they will probably abandon the Hish Forest when the
expedition already organised by Feisal to attack enemy posts
east of the Dead Sea, begins to move north from Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Musa.
Medina G arrison.
Captain Depui has passed to Major Cornwallis a corrected
copy of his estimate of the Medina garrison and list of the staff
personnel, compiled originally in October last. The chief feature
is the evidence of wastage. According to Capt. Depui, the 42nd
Regt. has now a total strength of only 650, its 1st battalion at
Bir el-Mashi being 250 strong and the other two 200 each.
The 55th Regt. has a total of 050, of whicli the 1 st battalion,
distributed along the railway up to Bowat, supplies 390. With
Camel Corps, 300 men—Heavy Artillery, 150—Railway Battalion
(1 coy.) 80—Depot troops, 200, and 350 men in hospital, Capt.
Depui makes ont a grand total for the H.E.F., Medina Section,
of only just above 3,000 men. If, as reported from other
sources, forty per cent of these are unlit, Medina is in preUy
bad case. Sherif Ali has been bombarding the delajilah outpost
and reports that he has destroyed a gun and inflicted numerous
casualties but he had two of his own guns put out of action.
Maan Operations.
The Arabs have occupied Ain Busta with a company,
having two machine guns. The Arabs now hold el-Batra,
Bir Nasara, and Fuweilah, all in the neighbourhood of the
main pass, Nagb esh-Shtar, on to the Maan plateau ; and a
track for armoured cars is being pushed on up the pass. The
first battalion, 178th Regiment, is reported to have been so badly
cut up at Fuweilah that it has had to be reformed. Its O.C. was
sent to Damascus for court-martial.
General.
Quarantine restrictions in regard to Akaba were removed on
December 5.
Captain Depui told Colonel Wilson at Yambo in the latter part
of last month, that the Sultani Road from Rabugh northwards
was then far from safe for the passage of Sherifial parties,
although since the incident in October, mentioned on page 428,
Algerian detachments, on their way to and from Sherif All’s
Camp, had, as a matter of fact, traversed it unmolested. Sheikh
Husein Mubarak has regained some control over the Zobeid
Masruh and is in the Rabugh neighbourhood, though with no
great following. Captain Depui thought that European officers
should, for the present, take only the Juheinah road inland, as
he himself proposed to do.