File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎285r] (578/834)

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7JB
ASIR.
Since the issue of the last Bulletin a series of considered
appreciations have been received from Captain Clayton, liaison
officer with the Idrisi. The following is a precis of his reports
arranged under separate headings for convenience :—
(a) Military Events.
The vague report of the evacuation of Loheiya by the
Idrissian forces, received from Aden by telegram on September 23
(see page 341), turned out to be true. They abandoned it on
September 15, but held on to el-Atn-the source of its water
supply—five miles due E.
By the middle of October however they had been ejected
from el-Atn too and were holding el-Ganda eight miles E.N.E.
of Loheiya. The Turks had, by this time, made el-Atn their
main position, and were standing on the defensive. A series of
haphazard attacks by the Arabs failed to dislodge them, and
the general situation remained unchanged till the receipt of
the news of the armistice on November 1.
(b) The Failure of the Idrissian Army.
During this campaign the Idrisi’s forces actually out
numbered those of the Turks steadily in the proportion of three
to one (i.e. three to four thousand against nine to twelve
thousand) ; potentially they outnumbered them, on his own
showing, by a much larger margin. Apart, too, from this
numerical preponderance, the strategical situation, backed as they
were by British men-of-war, was entirely in their favour. Yet,
on the receipt of the news of the armistice, they were in a
position tantamount to defeat. Their failure, according to a
report from Aden of October 31, was being widely commented
on throughout the Yemen Tihama.
Captain Clayton ascribes it to several reasons, the chief of
which are :—
(1) The Decline in the Morale of the Arabs in General.
This is due, not to degeneracy, but to a complete change of
mental attitude, for which the present war is largely responsible.
Turkey filled the ordinary Asir tribesman’s horizon in the old
days ; and Idrisi’s men fought the Turks with whole-hearted
fanaticism over a series of points of difference, mainly religious.
The war has forced upon the Arab mind a new consciousness of
the overwhelming wealth, proximity and power of western
civilization, by comparison with which that of Turkey is second
rate. This enlightenment has acted with peculiar force in Asir,
where the tribesmen are unusually ignorant. Che appearance
of aeroplanes in particular, has had a great effect upon them.
The idea of Arab nationality, for which they are told they are
fighting, fails to arouse any burning sense of enthusiasm, as did
the religious questions of the past. They feel their comparative