ملف رقم ٦٠٠ لسنة ١٩٠٥ الجزء ٣ "المنطقة الداخلية لعدن: الوضع؛ انسحاب الوكيل السياسي من الضالع؛ معاهدات مع زعماء قبائل الحواشب والقُتيبي والعلوي" [و‎‎١‎٥‎٣] (٥٠٨/٣٠١)

India Office, London,
14th June 1907.
Secret,
No. 20.
To His Excellency the Right Honourable the Governor
General of India in Council.
My Loud,
I have considered the Secret Letter of Your Excellency’s
Government in the Eoreiim De-
JLden Hinterland : arrange
ments to be made on the withdrawal
of the Political Officer from Dthala.
partment, of the 25th April 1907,
No. 74, as to the arrangements to
be made for the safety of the
Aden-Lthala trade route on the withdrawal of the Political Officer
from Dthala.
2. I have no desire to minimise the difficulties which, as you point
out, beset the Amiri frontier, whether from tribal disturbances, or from
disputes between the Arabs on our side of the border and the Turkish
authorities, or possibly from intrigues by the Imam. But the further
reports furnished with your letter
* See telegram of 13th March 1907. .... 17 . .
confirm the view* I have already
expressed that the presence of an officer on the spot must lead to a
degree of interference with tribal affairs altogether inconsistent with
a reversion to the former policy of non-intervention which His Majesty’s
Government consider it essential to effect. The Resident in his letter
of the 12th January 1907t states
that the accounts received from
the Political Officer as to the hostilities then proceeding between the
Amir of Dthala and his tribesmen, tended to show that “ little or
“ nothing has been effected by our recent stay in Dthala towards con-
“ solidating the Amir’s dominions, and that in view* of the weak
“ and avaricious nature of that ruler, any attempt to do this by the
“ temporary support of British bayonets Avas foredoomed to failure.”
In his letter of the 17th Eebruary
+ No. 1084. 1907J the Resident expresses the
view r that “ upon the natural declension of the Amir’s power tribal
“ affairs wall in due course settle down and matters find their ow T n
“ level.” And his letter of the
§ No. 22o2. eth March 1907§ reports that the
Amir appears now to be making a a irtue of necessitA, to Iiua e
“realised the futility of his former aspirations and methods,” and to be