PALESTINE UNREST

Hokitika Guardian, 26 June 1920, Page 4

PALESTINE UNREST

JERUSALEM, May 3.

There is no news of further attacks by Beduins on our troops holding the Jordan line. Aircraft report many Bed. uin encampments in the Yarmuk Valley, tip which the railway runs from Semakh to Damascus. It is down this valley that the Beduins went to attack Semakh. They probably feel that they have had a severe lesson, several important Sheikhs being killed in the Semakh affair.

A deputation from Emir Feisul’s Government at Damascus, which left Jerusalem yesterday after spending tho night here, will do its best to restore order, according to wliat a member told me. He declared that a force of 400 cavalry had been sent to the Yarmuk Valley with orders to arrest and, if nc_ cessary, shoot at sight any Beduins who persisted in a hostile attitude. An encouraging sign is that the Emir Beshir, chief of one of the tribes engaged in the recent fighting, lias asked to come here anr confer with the British authorities.

The Rowallah tribe has shown signs oj concentration round Koneitra, east of Lake Ilnleh, and as it numbers about 15,000 it might turn the Jordan fighting into a little war. But it is hoped hat Emir Feisul’s influence will restrain the tribe.

A delegate from Damascus with whom I spoke did not deny the presence of machine gun s among the Beduins. He said the latter had probably taken them from the Turks and Germans, and possibly they had field pieces here and there. The guilty among them would be tried and punished severely by tlie Damascus Government.

The motives of the attack at Semakh give a clue to the position. The Beduins are looters by constitution and habit, and they find in the mixture of authorities and the zone system of adlninistriiioii an undreamed of chance of raiding. They dislike Zionism, as was shown by two abortive attacks on tlie Jewish farm colonies on thi«, side of the Jordan.

Among thei Headers, too, are some Pan-Islamic young hotheads in Arab uniforms, and ill the background other parties , are exploiting the Pan-Islamic youths and the Beduins in order to create the impression of a widespread anti-foreign movement from the Tauru s t othe orders of Egypt, to cope with which both Britain and France, they hope, may engage in a costly expedition.