File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎37r] (82/834)

— 467
from the south relieved the station and found its garrison
reduced to twenty-six men of whom thirteen were wounded.
The enemy reports his missing at two officers and sixty-five men ;
but, as lie has not included his own wounded (or, perhaps, his
killed), in these figures, his total casualties, at Stahl Antarand Bowat
together, may safely be put at least as high as two hundred. The
relieving force, which was commanded by Ghalib Bey, then under
took a raid towards the oases of the Jurf Lankomi plain, Tchad (see
p. 445) and Kattar, but unable to bring Abdullah’s Arabs to
battle or pursue them far, returned to Bueir. From information
given by Capt. Depuis, who has arrived slightly wounded at
Jiddah, it appears that, prior to the above affair, Bowat station
had been held awhile and burned out by Sherif Ali’s force,
assisted by French Algerian elements. Its garrison and those of
some posts towards Hafira were cleared out. Capt. Depuis got
his wound in one of the latter encounters, being left alone with
his Algerians and gallantly extricating himself and his men.
(5) Norther?i Section .—A telegraphic report from Lt.-Col.
Joyce about the Dhat el-Haj affair of November 9 or 10 , (see
pp. 448-9) states that the Arab captures amounted to*- an officer
and twenty-seven men, who have all been brought into Akaba by
the Beni Atiyah. These tribesmen encountered a train which
stopped to put off a wood cutting party of forty men, who,
before proceeding, attacked the Arabs, and, according to report,
were all killed or captured. But it is not clear whether one fight
or two took place, whether the officer and twenty-seven men
prisoners came from the wood-cutting party or from a post
attacked previously. Since then the line and telegraph have
been cnt again south of Maan, on or about the 17th.
As a sequel to the Khirbet es-Sumra raid (see p. 448), a
strong attack, of which we have no details, seems to have been
made on el-Hasa station on November 12 or 13. A bridge,
presumably that of three arches, twenty-five feet high, just south
of the station, was blown up and remained still unrepaired a
week later.
General.
The 2 nd Composite Force is fast losing strength. Against
1,722 rifles at the end of October, it reports 1,576 in the middle
of November, while 2/152nd Regiment has fallen from 197 rifles
to 148. The Austrian Instructional Mission at Maan (see
p. 428) has been ordered back to Damascus at once. Following
on the disaster to the Palestine Army, an interchange of views
about the position and future of the Hejaz Forces has been
taking place between Damascus and Medina. I he plan approved
at present involves a reduction of the H.lt.I., the victualling of
Medina for a year’s siege, and the withdrawal of all other troops
(i.e., balance of H.E.F. and the two Composite Forces) to
Amman, leaving the Holy City to the protection of its own