File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎228v] (465/834)

Turks and captured twenty-three. One officer, three men, and a
convoy of camels, hound for Jerdun with water, were also
captured. Demolitions were carried out by night between Maan
and Jerdun on July 20. Two officers who deserted from Maan,
report that the supply of Hour is exhausted, and only four
thousand kilogrammes of grain are left. A fresh battalion of
Turks has arrived at Kutrani from Constantinople, while at
Fareifra two thousand Turks are concentrated with machine guns,
artillery and five hundred transport animals. The Turkish
troops are still being watered from Kutrani by motor-trollies,
which ply regularly between that place and Fareifra. On July 29,
Bedouins captured twenty men and a sergeant, who were
endeavouring to repair the telegraph wire between Aneza and
Jerdun.
Southern Area.
Local agents in Jiddah affirm that eight hundred Ateibah
recently left the northern army because Feisal had not paid them.
The King’s version of the affair, given to Colonel Bassett, is that
the Ateibah are unable to stand the northern climate, and are
being sent back for service in the southern Hejaz !
Sherif Ali has advised the King of a raid by one of his
detachments on a Turkish camel corps post, near Bir Ali, in
which fifty-four Turks were killed, including Ahmed Rifaat, their
commander. One hundred camels were killed, and sixty rifles
and eighty-one camels captured. The Arab losses were three
men and seven horses killed. [Note. —This report should be
accepted with reserve. It is intrinsically improbable that a
hundred camels would be slain in what was admittedly a mere
raid, to say nothing of the extraordinary disparity in the
casualties of the two parties.]
According to information .collected by Sherif Sharaf from
native sources early in July, the supply of grain at Medina will
be exhausted in three months. Last year’s old and rancid dates
have been issued as rations, and more than half the garrison is
said to be sick. Medina’s distress is reflected in el-Ula, which has
received no supplies since the despatch of two hundred sheep and
some dates two months ago. Supplies are at a low ebb, and though
in June the garrison secured a haul of thirty-seven thousand sabs
of grain (about one thousand seven hundred bushels), by
confiscating stores hidden by the natives, it was at once absorbed
by the demands of the daughter garrison stations. Only a small
supp ] y of grain was available for sowing this year, and, moreover, the
native farmer will not plant that another may reap. The number
or palms in el-Ula is said to be fifty thousand, and it is estimated
that twenty thousand of these will bear fruit, which should
supply the needs of the oord Division for two or three months.
Considerable unrest is reported among the civil population,
and the sheikhs have even discussed co-operation with the Sherif :
but the fear of the Turks is upon them, and so far, no steps have