Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1943. THE ARAB WORLD.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 34, 19 November 1943, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1943. THE ARAB WORLD.

The crisis in Syria and Lebanon derives much of its seriousness from the effect that unrest in those areas has upon the Arab world. The Arabs number some fifty millions, peopling the areas from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Arabia proper with ten million to twelve million and Egypt with twelve million to fourteen million Ara-bic-speaking people are two of its largest countries. Some parts are wholly independent like the Hed~ jaz, or Saudi Arabia. Some are in treaty relationship with the west, that being so with both Egypt and Irak, bound in this fashion to Britain. Some have been under mandate, as Palestine and Syria were to Britain and France. Then the former Italian colonies in Libya await a defined future. The only positive thing about it at present seems to be a British promise to the Senussi of Cyrenaica that they would not again be placed in Italy’s power. Nearly all the area these peoples inhabit was once united under the rule of the Turk, but there has been no unity among them since the breakdown of the Ottoman Empire. They have disputed among themselves with some actual fighting. Saudi Arabia and the Yemen went to war some years ago. There have been border quarrels with Irak by the Arabs of Transjordania and the Nejd. The port of Akyab is claimed by both Transjordania and Saudi Arabia.* These differences, however, do not prevent the Arabs making common cause against [the western nations and*there is a growing movement for the establishment of a federation of Arab peoples.