File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎10v] (29/834)

another, both carrying grain, travelled for ten hours per diem ;
thus the whole voyage occupied 200 hours. This is the
minimum time stated on p. 159 and faster than earlier experience
would have pronounced possible, except on the spring flood.
The Euphrates, however, is still running fairly full in July, and
it appears that the waterway has been deepened and buoyed by
German enterprise at some points, which used to cause delays,
£.(/., in the Fatihat Khidhr Ilyas passage (see p. 159), near
Haditheh island, the present wireless station of the enemy, and
for some forty miles above it. The informant said, that he
found from three to four feet of water all the way, and that
launches could pass everywhere. He saw some seventy shahturs
under construction, supervised by Germans, in the boat-yard at
Jerablus, and stated that six men now build a pair of these craft
in ten days. This rate must, however, vary with the size
required ; for all shahturs are not of equal dimensions.
Emil Kir sch.
The following interesting account of the adventures and end
of the Mullah’s German (Jew ?) armourer (see p. 594), who had
formerly been in the Abyssinian service, is extracted from H.M.
Commissioner’s Somaliland Report for August:—
“ Emil Kirsch is dead. Accompanied by his servant, he
escaped from Tale about the middle of June, and marching by
compass, headed for the northern coast with the intention of
surrendering at the Italian port of Alula. After many days’
wandering without food or water, his strength gave out, and he
ordered his servant to leave him and go on. The servant
staggered on until picked up by some friendly tribesmen quite
close to Leskhorad. A Warsangeli party was despatched
immediately to search for Kirsch. They found his remains and
brought in some of his effects. The servant, one Ali Ahmed, a
native of Nyassaland, is intelligent and well-travelled, and the
following precis of his information with regard to Kirsch, whom
he served for four-and-a-half years, may be accepted as reliable.
^ Kirsch was a mechanic who had travelled extensively in
East and South Africa mending typewriters and other machines.
The outbreak of the Great War found him on board ship en
route for Jibuti. Disembarking at that port, he hastily made
his way to Abyssinia, where he remained till August, 1916. In
that month three-cornered negotiations took place between the
German Consul, Lij Yasu and the Mullah’s envoy, as a result of
which Kirsch wa S< sent to Tale to repair the Mullah’s machine
gins, rifles and (imaginary) artillery, and to make ammunition,
tie was given to understand that he was going on a five months’
contract inclusive of journeys, and Lij Yasu gave personal
security for Ins safe return. He appears to have had little idea
ol the hazardous nature of Ins enterprise, but he was soon to be
disillusioned On arrival at Tale, he was allotted quarters in the
mam defensible work, and in these quarters he was virtually a