WARRING TRIBESMEN

Evening Star, Issue 21715, 9 May 1934, Page 9

WARRING TRIBESMEN

THE RED SEA BORDER BRITAIN OBSERVES NEUTRALITY Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, May 7. Information has been received in London that the British Minister at Jeddah (Sir Andrew Ryan) has been given an assurance that order will bo established in the Red Sea part of Hodeida recently occupied by the victorious Wahabis. In the House of Commons to-day, when questioned regarding the situation in Hodeida and Yemen, Sir John Simon said the British Government had preserved an attitude of strict neutrality towards the conflict between Ibu Saud and the Imam, with both of whom the British Government was in friendly treaty relations. It was taking only such measures as had proved essential for safeguarding the lives and property of British subjects and British protected persons in the area affected by the hostilities. GRIM BATTLE EXPECTED IBN SARD’S AMBITIONS.' CAIRO. May 8. (Received May 9, at 10 a.m.) The Wahabi forces are steadily advancing from Hodeida towards Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where a grim battle ia expected. Another Saudi army, under Emir Ahmed el Showeir, is harassing tho Yemins, capturing a caravan and camels conveying ammunition, also two Italian gunnery instructors. Ibn Saud is described as the Arabian Bismarck, and'is credited with the ambition to create a Greater Arabia. He is claiming possession of Yemen, which is the richest territory in Arabia. It would give Ibn Saud control of all the cultivated land on the Red Sea coast, besides the desert railway routes from Mecca seaward.

A FAMILY QUARREL A few weeks ago (says the London ‘ Times ’ in a recent article) it was believed that the long-standing territorial dispute between the Imam Yahia of Yemen and his redoubtable neighbour, the King of the Hejaz and Nejd, had been settled by diplomatic means. The two Governments had agreed after seven months of negotiation to hold, a peace conference and delimit their common frontier. But the Wahabi King was too trustful. In order to minimise the danger of a collision he withdrew his troops from the frontier in the Tehama region, which both rulers claimed. But just as the Imam had allowed or encouraged his troops to extend their encroachments into the hinterland of Aden during his earlier conversations with the British authorities, so now he permitted them to occupy districts which the Arab King’s frontier guards had evacuated, and to declare a protectorate over them. No doubt he counted on increasing his bargaining power in the impending negotiations by enlarging the area occupied by his men and mistook his neighbour’s patience for weakness. But King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud proved less longsuffering than the British had been at Aden. He regarded the Imam’s action as a piece of sharp practice and ordered his son and heir, Prince Saud, Viceroy of Nejd, to lead his troops against the invaders. Such is the story communicated to the Press by the representative of Saudi Arabia in this country. Those who are acquainted with the recent history of Yemen and with the Imam’s methods will be disposed to accept this account of the cause of the war, formal or informal, which has broken out in Southern Arabia. They will be less disposed to indulge in prophecy as to the result of the first engagements. The Wahabis have easily defeated - every enemy whom they have met within the borders of Arabia, from King Hussein to the Beduin rebels whom they literally destroyed in July, 1932. But the Yemen troops, whom they are encountering for the first time, are bold and active opponents, as the Turks found to their cost in 1904 and later. The Imam has amassed'a large treasure in his long reign and can thus afford to pay his men, who are well armed and are said to have boon trained by Turkish instructors. But it is doubtful whether his subjects, of whom ho holds 4,000 as hostages for the loyalty of their families, will support him through the hazards of what may be a long war. Meanwhile no international writ runs in Arabia and there can be no opportunity for intervention, except in a friendly way, in what is really an Arab family quarrel.