"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية. الحملة في بلاد الرافدين ١٩١٤-١٩١٨. مجلد I" [و‎‎١‎٠‎١] (٤٥٤/٢٠٦)

TURKS IN ARABISTAN
179
During this period, the garrison of Qurna and Muzaira’a
was being reduced as quickly as the few available steamers
would permit. The Turks had shown little activity here
beyond laying mines in the Tigris below the obstruction near
Ruta, and their garrison in this neighbourhood had apparently
been reduced to two battalions of infantry and six guns.
At Ahwaz the reinforcements under General Robinson had
at first had a reassuring effect. The insurgent Bawi had
been defeated by the Shaikh of Mohammerah’s loyal levies,
and there were signs that they and the other tribes in the
neighbourhood were wavering in regard to the attitude they
should adopt. But on the 20th, Wassmuss and other German
agents arrived at Shushtar on their way to Shiraz (in Fars)
and Hawiza, and the effect of the German propaganda in
Arabistan at once became more apparent. Arab cavalry
were being encountered daily within ten miles to the north
west of Ahwaz, but our own cavalry were too few in number
to be able to cope with them effectually.
The Turkish Minister at Tehran had informed the Bakhtiari
Khans that the Turkish force only intended to get behind the
British at Basra and not to invade Bakhtiari territory; and that
they had some such intention was confirmed by the news on the
27th, that four thousand Turkish troops with fourteen guns and
fifteen thousand Arabs were in camps on the Karkha river. On
the 24th the Espi&gle had visited Mashur on the Hor Musa (east
of the Shatt al Arab), to show the flag and to exhort the
Gha’ab Shaikhs to remain loyal to Mohammerah ; and on the
26th the same ship reconnoitred for some distance up the
Karun river. The attitude of the tribes east of the Karun and
the Shatt al Arab was now so threatening that small garrisons
were placed at Abadan and at Marid on the Karun river.
On the 25th the General Staff in India, in appreciating
the situation, came to the conclusion that the position in
Mesopotamia might become critical at any moment, while
that on the North-West Frontier was not so critical though
it might become so in a few months time ; and the arrest of
the chief conspirators in the Punjab had so eased the internal
situation that the Territorials and Volunteers should be able
to deal with its difficulties. The Chief of the General Staff,
however, telegraphed on the 27th to the Chief of the Imperial
General Staff that owing to the news from Egypt and from
other sources beyond the control of India being so conflicting,
he would like to receive an authoritative appreciation of the
Turkish intentions and dispositions; and he also asked if