File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎356r] (720/834)

Colonel Wilson, writing from Jeddah on June 24, again
draws attention to the possibility of a Wahabi revival on a large
scale, but there are no definite indications of such an event,
and Bedouin prognostications of it have, so far, proved wrong.
There is some perturbation m Mecca at the idea of a
pilgrimage being prepared m Nejd, and Colonel Wilson feais
that, should large numbers of Ikhwan perform the ceremony,
disturbances might result, and that, on the conclusion of the
pilgrimage rites, Ibn Saud might conceivably use the occasion
as an opportunity for occupying Mecca.
Meanwhile, all preparations for a large pilgrimage from other
Moslem lands are going ahead; indeed, some have already
arrived at Jeddah, It seems unlikely that Ibn Saud will interfere
with the pilgrimage or that he will undertake any such foolhardy
operation as the seizure of Mecca, an act which could but have
disastrous results for him eventually.
Kurdistan.
In his report on the journey he recently made to Yiranshehr.
Captain C. L. Woolley gives the following “ general idea” of the
chiefs of the Kurdish tribes with whom he discussed the political
situation. n _. n . J . , ,
“ Kurdistan stretches from Kars and Tmis to Adana, aud
from Trebizond and Malat la to Rowan Duz. It includes,
therefore, the six so-called Armenian Vilayets, part of Russia,
and part of North Persia. For this area the chiefs claim a
Kurdish population of 13,000,000. The name “Armenian
Vilayets,” in their view, is a misnomer ; between ninety and
ninety-five per cent of the population are Kurds. Turks consti
tute hardly more than one per cent, mostly Government officials,
and the remainder are Armenians, with a few Jacobites (near
Mardin especially). The chiefs consider that the Great Powers
should conduct proper investigations, when it would be found
that these figures are approximately correct. In a very large
part of the Turkish area the people speak only Turkish, and by
travellers are assumed, therefore, to be Turks. Actually they are
Kurds and tribesmen, with a national consciousness and a strong
hatred of Turkish rule, demanding an independent Kurdistan,
These Kurds are not by any means nomads-—vast numbers of
them are settled town dwellers, and they are not savages. They
ask for independence from Turkey, for a united Kurdistan, and
for a Kurdish Government based on proportional representation
and placed under the mandate of a European Power.”
Captain Woolley states that he believes the Kurds have
certainly an overwhelming majority in the six “ Armenian ”
Vilayets and gives the following statement showing how the
alleged population of 13,000,000 for Kurdistan is made up.