File 705/1916 Pt 2 'Arab revolt: Arab reports; Sir M Sykes' reports' [‎129v] (256/450)

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APPENDIX (B).
Circulation of Vernacular Paper in Lower Mesopotamia.
f
Basra, August 14, 1916.
While the circulation of the English edition of the “ Basra Times ” has mounted
steadily until it is now close on four times that of last February (2.300-2,500 as against
610) the circulation of the vernacular edition has remained with slight fluctuation at
about the old level:—-
some weeks been trying to arrive at the causes thereof, especially with a view to
remedying any radical defects in our methods. On the whole the results of this
research have been gratifying. I summarise thus :—
1. The number 700-800 represents probably very nearly the maximum we are
number of literate natives. (This on the authority of intelligent local
natives and of Captain Young, late A.P.O., Basra.)
must be remembered that each copy that is bought probably serves not only
several readers but a still larger circle of hearers.
so far as the number of native readers seems to be slightly on the decrease
we find not a slackening of interest in the news but a tendency to buy
the English edition as being fuller and sometimes fresher (see footnote*). It
seems that it is increasingly the fashion for any Arabs and Persians who
know English to translate the English paper to an admiring circle in the
coffee houses. r r *
present modest sale as reflecting either on the interest taken by the local population
in the Basra Times or on the zeal and intelligence of the £< Basra Times ” m catering
foi its public and pushing its wares, and no need for us to do more than we are doing
to keep the paper before the native public.
The settled lands watered by the tv\o great rivers of Mesopotamia are bordered to
the south and west by deserts _ which are the home of nomad tribes. The line of
demarcation between the Bedouin and the fellaheen Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. is not, however, an ethnological
frontier nor is it a sharply defined economic or political boundary. The cultivator of
nee neidb and palm gardens is ol the same race as the wanderer in the desert; in the
past and often in a past not very remote^ his forebears dwelt in the black tents; his
habits of life have undergone little radical change, and his ways of thought have
suffered no alteration. After the winter rains half the village will revert to a nomadic
It is true that the Engtish paper is frequently twenty-four hours ahead of the vernacular with its
110 W S l
i. Because the vernacular has to go earlier to press. Both the papers have to be printed by the one
machine, and the shorter run of 700 odd has to be got off before the run ot 2,300 odd begins.
>ecause i news aruves at the last minute it necessarily takes longer to have it translated and
publisiied than to publish it in its original form.
In the main, however, all telegrams are triplicated and handed simultaneously to the English, Persian,
an- papers, anc no eLorts are spared to keep the vernacular papers abreast of the latest news.
February
663
730
665
818
803
721
March
April
May
June
July (Ramazan)
This state of affairs has caused me not a little searching of heart, and I have for
likely to reach—a maximum which is obviously limited by the available
On the whole, therefore, there is, I think, no need to reproach ourselves with the
APPENDIX (C).
The Independent Chiees of Eastern Arabia.