File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎93r] (194/834)

SMMtfttllMi
_ 43 __
three Hotchkiss automatics, to our left flank. They crept down
behind the western ridge of the plain till within 200 yards of the
Turkish Maxims, without being seen, as we opened across the
plain a frontal attack of eighteen men, two Vickers, and two large
Hotchkiss. The ridge was a flint one, and the Turks could not
entrench on it, as we had found in the morning ; the ricochets were
horrible. They lost many men, and our left flank were finally
able by a sudden burst of fire to wipe out the Turkish machine-
gunners and rush the guns. The mounted men then charged
the retreating Turks from our right flank, while we sent forward
the infantry and the banners in the centre. They occupied the
Turkish line at sunset, and chased the enemy back past their
guns into the bed of Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Hasa ; where their cavalry in reserve
put up a check that was not passed till dark. Our people mostly
gave up the pursuit at this point (we had had no food since the
day before, and the cold ’was pitiful) but the Bedouins of Kerak
took it up and harried the flying mob all night.
Our losses were about twenty-five killed and forty wounded.
The Ibn Jazi Howeitat, under Hamad el-Arar, did splendidly, and
the villagers were very steady and good.”
The figures of the Turkish losses were given in the last
Bulletin. Four more machine guns have since been brought in,
raising the number captured to twenty-seven.
A JOURNEY ACROSS ARABIA FROM
UQAIR TO JIDDAH.
1. Uqair to Riyadh.
Towards sundown on November 15, 1917, the dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. , into
which we had stowed ourselves and our effects on the morning
of the previous day at Bahrain, and in which we had spent two
weary days and a very uncomfortable night instead of the seven
or eio-ht hours usual under normal conditions, found the.wind at
last off the Uqair headland and sailing into the harbour cast
anchor alongside the pier. We were warmly welcomed on
behalf of the ruler of Nejd by the local Emir, and spent the
following day seeing the sights of Uqair such as they were and
in making preparations for our onward journey.
The port of Uqair consists of a large khan, a lew oftces
belonging to the local agents of Hasa merchants, the house of the
Emir and the quarters of the local garrison in a little fort—all
situated on the foreshore between the sea and the sandhills. On
the edge of the latter is a well which supplies the place with water
and a small guard-tower for its protection from marauders. The
permanent resident population of Uqair is_ nil, but an excellent
harbour—inaccessible under present conditions _ to ships of any
great draught—gives it some commercial importance, and
necessitates the residence of a number of officials and a garrison,
as also of the agents of merchants interested in trade between the
interior and the outer world.