Modern Arabia Has Every Luxury

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 19, 23 January 1937, Page 12 (Supplement)

Modern Arabia Has Every Luxury

ELECTRICITY AND RUNNING WATER IN DESERT TOWNS LONDON, Jan. 15. Although the British Government is still without confirmation of a report that certain sheiks have, in defiance to their treaty, granted Italy concessions in the fertile valleys of the Hadramaut, it has at least received other and brighter news. According to a dispatch to the Colonial Office from Mr Ingrams, first political officer at Aden, the Hadramaut protectorate is an oasis of modernity, with telephone, electric light and shower bath facilities to be found deep iu the hinterland of Southern Arabia. The truculence of the desert, chieftains is gradually being overcome by the steady inroads of civilisation, resulting from the return of Hadramis from other countries, where they have acquired new ideas of comfort, with sufficient wealth to settle down and acquire immovable property. At Tarfin, which was visited by Ingrams on his tour, there were enormous dwelling houses, painted attractively in blue, green, yellow aud pink, and having interiors fitted with every modern contrivance of electricity—fan';, telephones aud refrigerators. Their bathrooms have all the latest fixtures, including basins with running water and showers, whereas in the towns of Duan and Shibam there is scarcely a chair. Transported by Camels.' These houses are replete with European furniture. Comfortable chairs and sofas decorate the drawing-rooms. They have masses of gilt mirrors aud chandeliers, and glass cupboards full of jam dishes, egg cups, etc. Everything had to be transported on camel-back over the mountains, a trip taking six days. Iu Shibam, another interior town, are six-storey houses, surmounted by walled terraces. Enormous difficulty is experienced in ; building these houses, which are as much as 100 feet high, because really long timber cannot be transported by camel train. These houses arc divided into self-contained flats, each room with its own running water. Outside the towns, Ingrains found Bedouins learning to play football, which is replacing the more anti-social sport of raiding richer neighbours. As tlie population becomes more settled, radng has tended to become unpopular.