File 6/1912 Part 1 'Persia: Shiraz affairs; attack on Mr Smart; Swedish gendarmerie' [‎400v] (294/472)

Change of Valis— Ismail Hakki Bey has replaced Nazim Bey as Vali of Van; this
change has been brought about largely by the complaints of the Taschnak section of
the population.
Enclosure 3 in No. 1.
Quarterly Report on Affairs of the Yemen, ended December 31, 1911.
IMMEDIATELY after the declaration of war and the appearance in the Bed Sea
of Italian ships a holy war was proclaimed by the Imam Yahya and other notables.
Great excitement prevailed amongst the tribes of the interior, which mustered in
preparation for a descent on the coast. The services of 100,000 Arabs were offered by
the Imam Yahya for the war.
In consequence of the unfriendly relations between Bin Saoud and the Grand
Shereef of Mecca all communications between Najd and Mecca were stopped.
Bin Saoud has been levying taxes on the Oteiba tribe, the backbone of the Grand
Shereefs authority in the country, hence the order for the looting of all goods bound
for Najd or sent thence to Mecca. It has been rumoured that the Grand Shereef
contemplated another expedition against Bin Saoud, the success of his former expedition
in 1910 being considered very doubtful.
Enclosure 4 in No. 1.
Report on the Affairs of Mesopotamia for the quarter ended December 31, 1911.
Muntafik Arabs.
The commission of enquiry sent to the Muntafik country (see last quarterly
report) completed its report in October. The commissioners seem to have arrived at
the conclusion that the root of the trouble lies in the fact that the arable land on the
lower Euphrates is in the hands of a few powerful chiefs and sheikhs, who oppress the
Arabs and instigate tribal disturbances for their own ends, and that the Muntafik
question is thus merely a land question, which might be solved by “ expropriating ” the
present owners and dividing the land in small parcels among the minor sheikhs. It is
doubtful, however, whether such a question could be solved in so simple a manner.
Bagdad Railway.
Four engineers and a doctor arrived in Mosul to complete the survey for the
line between Nisibin and Mosul. The work was finished by the end of October.
Four other parties of engineers were then at work on the survey of the line between
Mosul and Bagdad, 350 kilom. of which remain to be completed.
No land has been purchased as yet, openly at all events, for the railway company
in Mosul, and no buildings have been begun.
Messrs. Wonckhaus and Co. are reported to be in negotiation for the purchase, on
behalf of the railway company, of a plot of land on the river bank at Bussorah, where
a depot can be established for storing material on its way to Bagdad.
The Moderate Liberal Club in Bussorah.
The club, the formation of which by Seyyid Tahb, deputy for Bussorah, was
alluded to in the last quarterly report, was formally opened on the 7th September.
The local Union and Progress Club had practically ceased to exist. The published
pi ogramme of the new club differs but slightly from that of the Union and Progress,
diffeience being that while the latter was organised and controlled by Turkish
officials, the former is organised chiefly by local Arab landowners and notables. The
Moderate Liberals have also abandoned the policy of Turkification in favour of that
of equal treatment for all nationalities.
k®yyid Talib, who professes to the Anglophile, has not a good past record, and
owes his influence mainly to the position and wealth of his family.