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'

THE - CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1955.

Nathaniel Gubbins THE ARAB WORLD

N

Housewife's Diary for the

disinfectant.”*

1956, given to my life partner, The Plucky Little Woman, did I understand of all what is expected plucky little women by the compiler of this brutal th book.

OT until I read The shampooing enroots and rubbing goodwill, because if he does he

"midtwy backs with might remember that all the cocktail parties, dinners, and THROUGHOUT THE YEAR receptions given at my expense THERE IS NO PEACE FOR bafore 1030 didn't stop the Ger HER,

innus allaging bombs at us. And an ocean

wouldn't of alcohol top nny ot the

ind guzzling, befuddled, crapulous, top-heavy foreign toss-pals from doing the same if they felt like it.

Damme, sir, why not tell them tho devil? Aro wa to Ko to cringe to these foreign smeli feasts with cocktails and Uttle bits of rubbish on toast? Are we men, str, or are we a lot

is

The moment

Christning decorations

down she mite instructed to collect old sheets auf blankets, old magazines, old clothes, old Christmas cards, and odd bits of knitting wool send them to various institutions taddresses given).

When she has wrapped the porvels and posted them (she'll have fun with the old sheels or blankets) she can learn how

שהו

**

remove stains, how in deal with burns, cuts, foreign: holles

and beads 1 and var, and what

in the eye, peas and The nose

do about chicken pox, measles.

h

athd whooping cungh moumps,

After that sh ITALENT Helen Blout the times of trains doctor's ,tj{*LV

and buses,

hours, church

voltage of the home, ant positions of fuse boxes and stop Cocks

the

In May she is warned abnu lecd Joe and told a watch out for furniture belier. though how she can be looking ter brother while snatching folies from the children und moving peas and bends from

ears and noses is nol their explained.

"silver

Iv June there are Asth" in the larder. In July pho Ja piekling walnuts, August whe berry por

t

I of fawning, slavish, grovelling. is making bluck mivelling, mealy-mouthed, lick- Jelly and "blotting": her hot face with cau-de-a-penny muckworms?

And keep that blusted, truy Cologne, Broken saslicorts have

to be mended and vegetables away from my foot. plekled in September.

By October she is cleaning out the cooker, kultting winter woollies, Berei perubbing um- brotins.

Modern Swan

was sent to Inter-

IN

FERMENT

The spit of land where Noah launched his Ark and the Queen of Sheba bathed -as Arab tradition has is a new pressure point for Arab nationalism. warry to Western defence strategists

it

and

A

"S

KA

By HAROLD GUARD

(PHOTOS BY CHARLES DAWSON)

38

Aden,

NE of the brilliant team of

ONS of Allah: anima! reporters employed November the 15 by The Animals' (and Birds')

throw out the Indating The loft. Making Newspaper, edited by N. Gub-

British !” I briquelies out of guet dust, and bins, Esq.,

heard this cry in ads try rot under the floor view Susle, the problem girl boards.

swan who has defied her angry Moslem cities from here to We enn ples over her miser father by refusing to migrate Baghdad. It comes from a able ChristmaSE spent making from a lake at Hayling Island.

new generation of nation- butterthies out of lariatna and They muy call me a problem pr

alista

old- well out of girl. Ittle bells requins musel

she said, "but it's father

trouble makera. milk bole

merely who in the problem." tops eas!

fashioned The next day she a remed

record that the wrelched woman "Would you cull your father And it is causing increased that it is not too suon make

A Leak on Boxing Day

a Victorian? the chlidren's cloths ready for

concern among Western de. ་་༡་་t she has a bath,

Victorian? pins up

I'd say he was school. She was! strengthen h To struggling ms of hair,' positively medieval. That's fence planners, who within durns und weak placen behind and his own for "ave abutes why I've refused to go to the the past year have seen wrenched bulions

with

with her fer propped up." new family

British forces begin their write numes in inackig ink on

modern girl must have her exodus from the vast net- choes and mackhiteles, check

freedom." socks, and dubban football boots

"Does 11

your father, insist that work of ground, nir nnd the Suez you are in bed early?"

"Early Don't make me laugh.

By Jumuary 10, just when she might be taking a Decathe

is warned about burst pojes 17. this happens she must hirn ot water at the balls, turn on all

rold taps, put bowls ander leaks,

rade out botter, shop erucks with figs dipizel in pout, and iden for fizzing notes in muse electric wiring is affected When

the van

do no more

ring the plumber, whe probably be out

On January 24 she is expected La make marmalate, and in

7 the will be drying February wet shoes stuffed with Heve paper and removing ran gots from spade with the sandpaper. At the end of the mon sh will be getting ready for ring

Just five short minutes arul she's off again collecting old

uk magazines, clothes, sheets, and old blankets.

home.

ប I mean

Disgruntled Host 1 have to be in bed by dusk.

T

Brst Using I saw in the papers was that Sir Anthony Eden doesn't enjoy the Foreign Offer cocktail parties that cost

your. 120,000,000 1

Normally 1 have nothing agam Eden, Ever since he stood up 1 that bumptious, rogant windbag, that shame less, unblushing blowhard, that

inden overbearing.

jack- overh Furchting Mussolini have been me of his staunch adinters

But because of any comptalat I found myself in a black rage about this

Lastered replacing

Why don'

my

you

ask

your

which is curly enough in the winter when a girl wants to go to parties and everything. With boy friends. I mean,"

"Can't

boy friends home?"

"Ask them home with father hissing at them all the evening? It gets on your nerves, one lovely boy friend who called for me was bitten so badly by father that he couldn't sit down for a week,”

Why.

"Don't you think your fatter was waiting for the right swan in come along?”

-He can wait a 10g as he likes. but I'm not. I mean A girl has to look out for herself her chance when it I mean it's only fair to

comes.

"Aren't you afraid to live alone in a desolate spot at the mercy of any adventurer?"

he enjoy dustpans, and warthlang ender- vork tali parbes? Don't pay and take downs.

nough for them in taxes? If he After making

a horrible fats doesn't like them why not give yourself." for lent she will be coping me my money back? Then, per- with chapped hands, wading haps, I could afford it cocktail with

And

enjoy blankets, shaking molls out of party of my own furs, baking hot cross buns for when I get better. Easter, noe packing eggs to be

As one of his unwilling hosts sent through the post as a time I suppose it is permissible to

ask why they are given at all full at people are April 18

in Does the Insuge they

when nurt

ly

T

"Afraid? Not me, I'm modern, 1 am, And as for adventurers, like the adventurous type. The more

that's the merrier, what I say, if you know what create inean."

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naval bases Canal Zone,

of

The cry can be heard in this little 75-square mile spit of land called Aden, the crossroads of sea traffic be- tween East and West since ancient times.

For more than a century since the British look this tiny peninsula and made it a Crown Colony, Aden has been a for- tres at the gateway to the Red Sea. Today, nationalism in The Arab states threatens

and the enguit both the Colony adjreent 115,000 square miles of the Aden Protectorate, which border the forbidden kingdom uf The Yemen and oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

to

Aboul Hixty per Aden's population is Yemenite.

has reigned Ahmed, who

of

กร

King of The Yemen since his assassination in 1948. father's bus long

the claimed bus

Adun Protectorate

of hip as part domain. Since the British with drawal from Suez, he has bet come

inilitant In more

hik claims,

has been fighting along the

bloody

anb there

Yemen border.

His Fear

The British administrators here say that King Ahmed is working against time. His recent

aggressive actions are due, they urgue, 10 his fear that as the Protectorate pers under British supervision, his own claims to sovereignty over the area will find less and less

response

Ito Επισης Yemenite inhabitants.

prrh

They cite the great expansion of Irrigation and agricultural ochemes

are bringing which back crops to the vast desert wilderness, the newly-com-

pleted all-refinery, and plans for making Aden

Itself

an even greater centre of world shipping.

It was here according to

Arab legend, that Noah bulit

THE Middle East is in

ferment, Tho

past two years have seen poli- tical changes of greater consequence

than any since World War 1. The cause is resurgent Arab nationalism; the offect has been an overhauling of military plans for that the by

Western defence community.

areo

To report this vital and exotic area in words and pictures, two voteran cor- respondents went to the heart of the Middle East and Moslem world-tha Jeast known

of part Arabia.

Harold Guard, Isoon Arab abova helping an fisherman to a light) who describes thaso remato communities and their present-day problems, has for 25 years

reported headlino.events from the Near and Far East. He was chief of the United Press bureau in Hongkong be- forc the war. Charles Dowson, who takes his camera to regions never before photographed, has international prizet for his newspictures.

won

Their journey begins in Adon, where the Red Soo moets the Indian Ocean. It takes them to The Yemen border, to Muscat, Oman and the Trucial States, to the uncharted "Empty Quarter" of the Groat Arabian desert, and back through Suck, Egypt, Sudan, Cyprus and Malta.

This is the first of ten illustrated articles by this reporting team, which will appear daily in the China Mail.

Not all historical relics neid

his Ark before the Deluge. suffer from the advent of pro-

The site identinod by this tradi- gress. While Aden's officials

tion

is being demolished to point with pride to the develop

With the co-operation of the of Fadhill, local ruling Sultary the Colonia) Welfare and De velopment Corporation financed an berigation project, and this at year the cotton plantation Abyan exported 29,500 bales of long staple cotton to Lancashire mills.

#

With cotton production har oord

of the construction cotton mill where fibres pro cleaned and baled for export,

of and tons

valuable cotton sood are packed.

Abyan's cotton Industry In being run entirely by Arabs, who told me that next year's exports would total 40,000 bales end that an oll extraction plant itie coiton seext would

for built.

be

Desert schools have followed in the wake of local industry. Abyen village now has a school for some 150 boys, and the Sultan has appointed a director

to supervise ambitious programmo which in- cludes a second co-educational school for children from all parts of the Protectorate,

of education

Progressive

an

وا

This development scheme being shared by two of the Protectorate's local rulers, the Sultans of Fadhli and Lower Yafal. Both are progressive in their outlook, and do not share the interpretation given to the Koran by some of the district chiefs which leaves all incentive with Allah.

The

step

ឆន

A

Colonial Office, toward Increasing local participation in government, has proposed to rulers of the various sultanates and shelkdoms in the Protectorato

that limited federations bo established 10

4

give them more to say in the affairs of the territory as

and whole,

to improve Co- operation in social services and

development projects. The

British made it clear that the to be treated under subjects such a federal system would be limited to education, public health, communications, customs, and posts and *tegraphic services.

King Ahmod of The Yemen, however, has opposed the plan. Ho claims that

thealy the Britain signed with his father

stain would put a

no

in 1934 guarantees that political changes will be made within the Protectorate during, the of the 40-year treaty.

life of Some of the ruling sheikhs also that the British pro- limit on their sovereignty as they cou- ceive it. Hence the proposed conference on federation been postponed and the whole question is under review at Whitehall.

has

Meanwhile, the desert forces forers of King Ahmed are continuing their sporadic attacks on Pro-

make room for deep sea ship- ment of modern facilities tecborate territory at points

of for water and power supplies,

along The Yemen border, which

of they still make good use of A is anything but clearly defined. fourth series of anelent rock-hewn re-

ping berths. In terms tonnage capacity, the port Aden already ranko among the world's largest.

servoirs for sweet water.

Th

The reservoirs can hald The exact spot where Noah

estimated 20 million supposedly trooped his animals and no one knows just

gallons, when abcard, two by two, is Mdalla, they were

a village on the

foreshore of

Orst cut into เด

Crack Troops

To carry out its responsibility the Aden peninsula. For five slopes of the volcanic mountain for maintaining law and order which forms the Aden penin- in the Protectorate, Britain re- thousand years, the Arabs say. suln.

Cruits local defence forces this site has been used for con-

known as the Aden Protectorato

structing ocean-going dhows. Until they were re-discover- Lavien. And they claim as descendants ed accidentally exactly 100 of Noah that Moolla, belongs to years ago by in English lleu-

them.

These troops, although land

tenant named Lambert Playfair, forces, are under the comi- The owner of the site today every pint of sweet water had mand of the Royal Air Force, is ǎ

a wealthy Azab named All to

be carried in to Aden by which co-ordinates their Ibrahim Noor. He employs carmel, Playfair unearthed them activities from alzategic air- eralismen who sull how and from under rubbish and debris fields along the south Arabian hammer together their boats in which filled them for cen- const. The Levies are scattered the ananner of the Art with turies. Cleaned out, they be thinly at key points through- Umbers brought from East

the Colony's reserve out the vast area, and their Africa and seasoned for years water storage.

labelled in Aden'a

are officially briny

seawater.

Squadrone" These craft, which Sindbad the

• Tho Arabo have

another One of them is a brack camel Sailor made famous, mill ply legend that one of the tanks corp and there are Westerners equatorial waters from was the Queen of Sheba's bath, who will maintain that riding Asmara to Basrah.

But there is another account. a

the

Arab

Sweet Water.

came

д

neet camel approximates

of the origin of the Aden row flying,

otrvoirs which appears to bo..

more authentic that they werp Aden's Levies are now being carved into the rock in

the balstored” by year. 545 AD, during the Per Bedouin Levies, fierce

Hodhramaut

coast.

Tro

trib. His little wonder that the an occupation of the Arabian mon. from the more remote dia

shipwrights who орить.

tes of the Aden Protectorate, modern Tools for primitive

authorlibre also and by Canan Leview recruited methods bemoan the passing of have brought water to the perch- from the Trucial Sileikdoms to Maslia as a sacrifice to progress et deserts of The Hadhramaut the east, which also are under us · ·represented by the dant and, the Abyan district of the British protection.

cel ships which put in at Aden Protoctonte. Since mort 'Adon' from the Seven Seas. Po a root rarely geb and their air support,

The Aden Fort Trust Authority

make the desert In those cráck, desert troops

Britain

has hastened to rocure the beyond the drawing-board stage, pine her hropos for maintaining Arabs of Moalla that a site for I went to have a look for mys and developing this expandin their dhow bulking wil to self-in' the arki wastes mame, 48– Milicle kat bugloss and prop available to them on Blave ecting te torosehing land, across the channel, Bord. Why prized to find a nourishing, fan or King med, their, fabled, waterfront,

cofion plantation). ::

A sergeant of the Adon Protectorate Levies and his

camel "at caso.”

The Minister of Education talks to a classroom of

boys at Abyan, near Aden.

Part of the ancient rock-hown water tank - system at Aden.

The hull of new Arah:

finis

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