DISTRESSED ARABS

Hokitika Guardian, 25 May 1932, Page 3

DISTRESSED ARABS

JEPRESSION AMONG THE TRIBES

NEW YORK, May 21

-■ Out of tile Arabian wastes east ot '•Syria and the Jordan come' 'reports o economic depression that might have been written d.'XJO years ago. The Bedouin tribes have been reduced to starvation by the complete failure of the normally scanty rain ail of tin* lesert after sevi ral poor years, and are now seeking refuge across the frontiers of Transjoidania and Palestine. Th V is the operation of tjie “business yele” in the desert which us d to end waves of nomad invasion upon the sown land in ancient times. The ocoples grew restless when there was •amine in the land

Somewhat later than Biblical in the present case is the news that because of the general impoverishment the lower of Sultan Ibn Sand has been shaken, the monarch’s moton'sed poire force being put out of commission hv lack of fuel and spare parts. Since the Bedouins do not export and import, their pli dil would seemingly have to be ascribed to purely local conditions. Yet it may be that 'sultan |bn < ~' ,, nd occasionally finds consolation in Hie thought that his tribesmen are the victims o 1 ’ a world-wide situation.