ملف ٧٠٥/١٩١٦ الجزء ٢ "انتفاضة عربية: التقارير العربية؛ تقارير السير م. سايكس" [ظ‎‎٩‎١] (٤٥٠/١٨٠)

6
Indian Officers* Visit to the Sherif,
The Arab Bureau telegraphed [A.B. 35] to D.M.T. on the 19th October that
these two Indian officers had returned to Egypt. Their mission had been highly
successful, and they now asked for six months in India. The Bureau added that after^
making arrangements for them, Captain Bray would bring home his report in person,'
as he had left Jeddah before the arrival of the permission for him to remain another
month with Colonel Wilson.
The Pilgrimage.
On the 15th October Sir H. McMahon telegraphed [No. 903] that information had
been received from Jeddah that the Egyptian mahmal and pilgrimage had returned
safely from Mecca on the 14th, and on the L 6 th he telegraphed [No. 906] that the
mahmai and pilgrims had left Jeddah by ship on the previous day. There had been no
cholera during the pilgrimage and only one death, which was due to ordinary disease.
The French pilgrims were to leave on the following day, and their medical officers
reported that there had been no sickness during the pilgrimage. In reply, on the
17th October, the Secretary of State telegraphed [No. 830] that he regarded it of the
greatest importance that a long and detailed communique should be at once issued to
the native and to the European press, laying great stress on the importance of the
pilgrimage which had been successfully concluded l he instructed Sir H. McMahon to
act accordingly.
But on the 20 th October the Secretary of State telegraphed to Sir H. McMahon
[No. 846] that he should defer. action, as the French Government wished that there
should be no mention in the Allied press of the return of the Jrench Moslem pilgrims,
and that any information should be withheld which could give the enemy, even indirectly^
a clue as to their itinerary or date of sailing.
Colonel Parker.
The position of this officer is defined by the report of the Arab Bureau for
September, in which the following passage occurs :—
“ Consequent on the decision to despatch a flight of aeroplanes to Babegh,
Colonel Parker has been installed there as political officer. He is being provided
with an Egyptian army officer who speaks English and an interpreter. Though
primarily placed there to act as political adviser to the flight commander in his
relations with the Arabs and to keep the High Commissioner in touch with the
current situation he will be in a position to gain valuable information about the
country and its people, which will be reproduced in the second edition of the Hejaz
handbook.”
IBN RASHID.
The Arab Bureau telegraphed to D.M.I. on the 17th October that several notables
of Ibn Rashid’s tribes had attended the pilgrimage ceremonies. Ibn Rashid himself is
considered hopeless by the Sherif, who thinks, however, that his cause has progressed
among these tribes.
But on the 22nd October Abdulla informed Colonel Wilson that a force from
Ibn Rashid had been defeated by a party of Harb east of Medina.
*
IBN SAUD.
Colonel Wilson says in his report, dated the 28th September [see Appendix B],
that 600 of Ibn Saud’s men have been for some weeks with Ali.
MASKAT.
' .[Nil.]
KOWEYT AND TBE TRUCIAL COAST.
[Nil.]