A LENGTHY SIEGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 309, 24 May 1911, Page 5

A LENGTHY SIEGE.

YEMEN" REBELS' SUCCESS. By Cable—Press Association —Copyright. Aden, May 22. The Yemen rebels captured a fortified post at Sliaar and took 150 prisoners ater six months' siege. THE BEDOUINS AND THE TURKS. Professor Alois Musi], the famous lecturer in Semitic languages at the University in Vienna, for sixteen years lived among the Bedouins practically as a native, and he is considered one of the greatest authorities upon the Arabian question. His views upon the situation and revolt in Yemen, which lie gave in an interview, are, therefore interesting. "If you ask me," said the professor, "how much the Bedouin pares for a Turkish >M.P. —never mind if he be the most learned man —my answer must be that a good camel is considered of more value. The desert governs the Bedouin—not the Turki.sh M.P.'s or Turkish officials. Therefore, the campaign in the desert will be the ruin of the Turk. This is sure to conje true in Yemen, in spite of the fact that the Turkish Government has 40,000 men there. llow many of those troops can be trusted? They desert the army by the score and return to their tribes. The secret of the war in Yemen is that the Arabs will not accept the Sultan in Constantinople as Caliph and a descendant of Mahomet, and the two Arabian chieftaiv.s who arc the leaders of the war arc, therefore, fighting a 'holy war.' In these circumstances the Turkish campaign is hopeless. The Turkish troops are bound to pass a mountain range of 8400 ft before they can reach the two ehief.s, and in the winter months it is bitterly cold there. Further, the Turkish officers do not know the country, and are not in possession of even a map. The wells are distant from one another. The oases are the only hope of the troops, but in the long run they will be insufficient for the wants of a greater force. Over and over again the Bedouins will attack the Turkish troops, rob them of their provisions, and disappear. They will poison the wells by throwing a, camel-cargo of dead grasshoppers into them. I know myself the terrible poisoning which follows quenching one's thirst, with that water. And vet it would be. an easy matter to pacify the Arabs if the system itself were not as bad as bad can be. If only Turkey would keep her promise and conclude an alliance with the tribes. I know how easily it can be done. Alliance and peace with the Bedouin is the only solution for Turkey in Arabia."