Map of Yemen [‎106v] (2/2)

36
THE YEMEN
and his officers, by their sporting predilections, have won the hearts of
Aden’s population. An admirable article in the Field defined pastime as
being “ besides the Esperanto of peoples, as perhaps the true League o
Nations.” Had I started a golf-course at Sana and enrolled Imam
Yahya and his white-turbaned Saiyids as life-members of the “^ o y al
and Primitive Sana Golf Club,” I believe I should have hastened the
conclusion of the much delayed treaty ! Robert Louis Stevenson, too,
has written these pregnant words: “What religion unites peop../~* <r
closely as a common sport ?” ir .io *
I now pass to the 1st Yemen Infantry, a development m 1918 of the
wartime Arab Labour Corps. Colonel M. C. Lake, who raised the
regiment, is its zealous Colonel, and the Corps is doing a gran wor as
an advertiser oi British methods. These Arab soldiers take readrly to
military discipline and are charged full of “ esprit de corps.
Italians recruited largely from this same field during their warfare
against the Turks in Tripoli, and a Colonel of theirs told me their fire-
discipline was superior to that of their Abyssinian levies. We can go
one better, I believe, than the Italians. The men are recruited from
places all over the Yemen. Every British officer in the regiment—
and my son is one of them—is a potential political officer. The 1st
Yemen Infantry is a strong political asset to us, who in 1907 marched
down from our headquarters in Dala and so lost that personal touch so
necessary in Oriental affairs. I hear rumours of the Corps’ disband
ment. I can conceive no more suicidal policy. Reverting to sports
the men play a strong game of “ soccer” football, and I should like to
match them against one of our 3rd Division League teams.
There are certain “ lacunae” in our Aden propaganda. There is no
college for the training of the young Arab chiefs, as we have in India.
Early marriage and the devotion to “ kat leaf is sapping the energies
of the youth. A college on the Khor Maksar plain of Aden is essential.
Here the youths would be taught English and Arabic; trained in the
Koran and their own classical literature. They would learn polo and
other manly games. The Italians have already adopted this form of
propaganda. I admire the Italians in many ways.
Again, the Aden Railway, a wartime strategic line, that runs thirty-
four miles from Aden to Habil, eight miles north of Lahej, might be
extended as a commercial proposition. This would treble our trade.
At present the railway hardly pays. A treaty with the Imam would
ensure its extension, and he would in that case be pleased to grant us
a sanatorium in the vicinity of Ta’izz, or even at Ibb. I learnt this
during my stay in Sana. Lord Morley’s “ sun-baked officials’’ in Aden
require a change of scenery.
Another missing link is the absence of Boy Scouts. Somalis and
Arabs would readily join the ranks. I believe in an intensive as
against an extensive policy in Aden; or, to adopt the words of the