'File No. II/8 Foreign Dept Memoranda of Information re. affairs in Turkish Arabia. Nov '07 --' [‎45r] (89/110)

TURKISH ARABIA A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. .
8 .
Yemen affairs.
Information has reached the Resident
at Aden of fighting
between the Turks- and
the Zaranik tribe. According to the report
many of the latter have been killed and Zaranik
itself captured; the Hodeida-Zabia telegraph
line has been cut and all roads in the locality
are blocked; and Turkish troops and war
material are being sent into the Zaranik coun
try from Hodoida and Sanaa. A particular
encounter is mentined in which 2,000 Zaraniks
made a night attack upon a Turkish camp in
which they lost £9 killed, the loss on the other
side being 29 killed.
9. (Vide paragraph 12 of the Memo*
Disturbances on the randum for March
Tigris. 1909.) Reports re
ceived from the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. show that
the country between Basrah and Baghdad is
much disturbed owing to the depredations of
the Arab tribesmen who are said to have been
goaded, into turbulence by the exactions of
dishonest officials. Traffic on the river is
practically at a standstill. Colonel Ramsay has
brought the gravity of the ‘situation to the
notice of His Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador
at Constantinople. He suggested that the
appointment of an honest Whli at Basrah
and an honest Mutassarif at Amara with
Military Commanders who would try to
carry out their policy, and the judicious
use of the existing Turkish Government
steamers on the river for certain offensive and
defensive measures which he outlined, would
go far towards the restoration of order. In the
meantime, Colonel Ramsay has been in com
munication with the Commandant of the Vlth
Turkish Army Corps on the subject of the pro
tection of the river traffic, and the latter has
agreed to make certain arrangements, but
offiy of a defensive nature.