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File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎272v] (553/834)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (411 folios). It was created in 1917-1920. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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344 —
Deraa, on the 15th. This (and its neighbour Um el-Surab)
were our forward bases, as about them were many cisterns of
water of last year’s rain. We were at once joined by the male
population of the nearest villages, and by Sheikh Talal el-
Hareidhin of Tafas, the finest fighter of the Hauran, who had
come to me in Azrak in 1917. He had agreed to be our guide,
and marched with us till he died near Deraa, helping us day and
night, our sponsor and backer in every village. But for his
energy, courage and honesty, things would have gone hard with
us many times.
It was still necessary for us to cut the railway between
Deraa and Amman, not only to give colour to our supposed
attack on the Fourth Army, but to prevent the reinforcement of
Deraa from the south. It was our plan to put ourselves between
Deraa and Palestine, to force the enemy to reinforce the former
from the latter. Had we merely moved troops from Amman to
Deraa we should be doing Palestine no good, and should probably
have been rounded up and caught ourselves. The only unit now
in hand to do this cutting—since the army must go forward at
once—were the armoured cars, which are not ideal for the purpose,
as you are almost as shut in to them as the enemy are shut out.
However, we went down in all the cars we had to the railway
and took a post of open-mouthed Turks too suddenly for them
to realise that we were hostile. The post commanded a very
pleasant four-arched bridge (kilo. 149) about twenty-five metres
long and six metres high, with a flattering white marble
inscription to Abd el-Hamid. We wrecked all this with one
hundred and fifty pounds of gun-cotton, and did what we could
to the station.
On the way back we had a mishap to one of the cars, and a
vile road, so did not catch our army till after dawn on the 17th,
going down to the line near Tell Arar, five miles north of
Deraa. We suppressed a little post and some Kurdish cavalry,
and put our demolition party on the line. The French blew up part
of the bridge, and the Egyptians, working up the line towards
Ghazale, did six hundred pairs of rails before dark on our new
“tulip” system.* Meanwhile we climbed to the top of Tell
* After long experiment we found this the cheapest and most de
structive demolition for a line with steel sleepers. Dig a hole midway
between the tracks under a mid-rail sleeper, and work out the ballast from
the hollow section of the sleeper. Put in two slabs of guncotton, return
the ballast to the hole, and light. If. the charge is properly laid, and not
in contact with the sleeper, a 12-inch fuse is enough. The gas expansion
arches the sleeper eighteen inches above the rail, draws the metals six
inches towards one another, humps them three inches above the horizontal,
and twists the web from the bottom inwards. It drives a trough a foot
deep across the formation. This three-dimension distortion of the rails is
impossible to straighten, and they have to be cut or scrapped. A gang of
four men can lay twenty “tulips” in an hour on easy ballast, and for each
two slabs (and single fuse) you ruin a sleeper, a yard of bank and two
rails. Tim effect of a long stretch of line planted with these “tulips” is
most beautiful, since no two look just alike,
H

About this item

Content

The volume consists of individual copies of the Arab Bulletin produced by the Arab Bureau at the Savoy Hotel, Cairo numbers 66-114. These publications contain wartime, and post-war intelligence obtained by British sources. They deal with economic, military, and political matters in Turkey, the Middle East, Arabia, and elsewhere, which – in the opinion of British officials – affect the ‘Arab movement’; the bulletins cover a wide range of topics and key personalities.

The volume contains the following maps:

  • A map of Central Arabia showing St John Philby's route from Uqair to Jidda 17 November to 31 December 1917: folio 103.
  • Sketch map prepared from RNAS photographs and reconnaissance by HMS City of Oxford of Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Mur February to March 1918 : folio 170.
  • Sketch map of Hejaz (1919): folio 317.
  • Tribal sketch map of the Hadhramaut ‘showing only tribes of fighting value’: folios 333v.

Towards the back of the volume is a small amount of correspondence respecting the distribution of Notes on the Middle East ; the Arab Bulletin was superseded by this publication. Copies of numbers 3-4 of this publication can also be found at the back of the volume.

Tables of content can be found at the front of each issue. A small amount of content is in French.

Extent and format
1 volume (411 folios)
Arrangement

The Arab Bulletins are arranged in numerical order from the front to the back of the file. The Notes on the Middle East follow on from the bulletins at the back of the file in reverse numerical order.

The subject 759 (Arab Bulletins) consists of two volumes. IOR/L/PS/10/657-658.

Physical characteristics

Condition: the edges of some of the folios towards the back of the volume have suffered damage to their edges due to general wear and tear. The affected folios are 389-390, 407-409, and 412.

Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 413; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The front cover and the leading flyleaf have not been foliated. A previous foliation sequence, which is present between ff 357-363 and ff 374-412 and is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.

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English in Latin script
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File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎272v] (553/834), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/658, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100048056856.0x00009a> [accessed 5 May 2024]

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