File 600/1905 Pt 1 'Aden Hinterland: Treaty with Dthala' [‎429v] (120/174)

2
permanently retained. Even when we are short of an Assistant Resident, it
would be much better to have a political officer at Dthala than at Perim, an
arrangement being made for carrying on the slight magisterial duties at the
latter^place, while no political officer is there.
6. In this connection I would venture to invite attention to paragraphs 5
to 8 of my letter No. 189 of 20th July 1903 ; in which it is suggested that the
emoluments of the officers in this Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. should he so far increased as to
afford them some inducement to prolong their stay in Aden. Since I have
been Resident (a period of two years and nine months), the First Assistant has
changed five times, the second and third Assistants each eight or nine times.
Ten different officers have filled the two latter posts, sometimes holding one
and sometimes the other, according to seniority. In these circumstances it is
not to be expected that the Assistant Residents can have a proper knowledge
of, or take much interest in, the political work ; especially when, as commonly
happens, they have no colloquial knowledge of Arabic. At the present moment
Mr. Bury and myself are the only officers of the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , who have any ade
quate acquaintance with political affairs ; and Mr. Bury is the only one of us
who can converse with the chiefs in their own language.
7. It will be understood from the above, that the occasional visits of a
Political Officer to Dthala, and other posts of the frontier, would not he of much
use, as the average Assistant Resident, who has frequently no political duties
under ordinary circumstances, and no time in which to learn them, would not
have sufficient knowledge of the country and people to deal effectually with
any difficulty of a serious nature. In my humble opinion this reason alone
makes it necessary to give the Resident t)ie assistance of a political officer at
Dthala who should have a good knowledge of Arabic, and be acquainted with
the people with wliom he has to deal. There is no doubt that under the con-
ditions wffiich will obtain in the future he will have ample occupation.
8. I attach an estimate of the extra cost of locating a Political Officer at
Dthala for one year. It includes provision for six additional police (camel)
sow r ars. These w 7 ould not be required if the levy were sanctioned. It is not
possible to estimate the expenditure involved by the detachments of regular
troops, which would fall on the military estimates. The expenditure of a
recurring nature would be mainly for the carriage of supplies from Aden, and
would depend on the strength of the troops, and the rate at which camels could
he hired.
9. Perhaps I may add here, though it is rather beside the subject, that
if the Government of India have decided, or decide in future, to locate a full
battalion of British Infantry at Aden (as seems to me highly desirable), it
will be a cheaper arrangement to accommodate the 300 men or so who will
he over and above the present normal strength, in inexpensive huts at Dthala,
than to make the necessary additions to the barrack accommodation in Aden.
If this should be done, there would be no necessity to provide any special
escort for the Political Officer.
10. With regard to the proposed levy, it would of course he expensive,
and Government may not think it worth the money. But I venture
respectfully to observe that I am unable to see how it wmuld involve inter
ference with the tribes, or infringe the principle of tribal responsibility. I
think my letters of 28th April, and 7th June 1903, show that I am fully alive
to the importance of the above principle, and I have ahvays believed myself
to be a strong advocate for maintaining it. Colonel Wahab’s statement that
the establishment of a levy would be regarded by the people as an assumption
by Government of the administration of the country, goes so very far beyond
the possibilities of the case that it is hardly worth refuting. I would observe
that frontier levies have always been largely used on the Punjab frontier,
without leading the trans-border tribes to believe that their independence
was being interfered with ; and that an Arab levy w r as for a long time attached
to the Aden Troop without any body imagining that we were thereby administer
ing the adjacent tribal territory. The objqct of th.e proposed levy is not to
defend the frontier (a force of 40 men could not by any means defend a frontier