Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), Saturday 5 May 1934, page 19


FIGHTING IN ARABIA

Britain Sends Sloop And Armed Forces INTERNAL FEUD Ibn Saud's Troops Invade Neighboring State

Special Cable To "The Advertiser" CAIRO, May 3.

As the result of an internal feud in Arabia, the British authorities at Aden have dispatched the sloop Penzanece eight aeroplanes, and

armed native police to Hodeida, a port on the Red Sea. The cruiser Enterprise has left Mombassa for Aden. The present trouble has arisen over the occupation, some months ago, of towns in the highlands of Teliama by the Imam Yahia of Yemen. In March, after diplomatic attempts to reach an agreement had failed, Ibn Saud. King of the Hedjaz, ordered his son. the Crown Prince of Arabia, to reoccupy the centres which had been seized. The Wahibis. the tribe to which Ibn Saud belongs, invaded the occupied territory, and are now sweeping over Yemen towards Hodeida, which the Imam of Yabia's troops evacuated, after having looted the ammunition store and Customs shed. A revolution is reported to have broken out in Sana, the capital of Yemen, as the result of lack of food. Prince Seiful Islam, the beir apparent, has fled. The Imam of Yehia has sent a telegraph message denying the report that he had been killed. He explained that he and his followers decided not to con-

sider themselves at war with Ibn Saud, and had. therefore, withdrawn from Tehama. They -would await ibn Saud's return to justice and wisdom. Meanwhile, they were asking King Fuad of Egypt to intervene.

[Yemen occupies the south-west corner of Arabia. From 1920 the Imam of Yahia had gradually encroached on the Aden Protectorate, but, was ejected by the British by an air action from Aden. In 1925 he occupied Hocieida, and later took the ports of Midi and Loheiya. toj getter with the intervening country be-I tween. the highlands and the coast. Cheered by this success, he Tecently invaded the highlands of Tehama, to which action Ibn Saud objected. For more than a year war had been threatening between Ibn Saud and Imam Yahia. The former took Asir, a small State, under his protection, after the Imam had expelled the forces of Asir from Hodeida. The Imam would not accept Ibn Saud's definition or the frontiers of Mir, and encroached upom

them. To make matters worse, the Imam claimed portion of Nejran, a little known region on the edsc of the Great Desert of Arabia. But'lbn Saud also coveted this area. Ke lest patience, and toward the latter part of last year told the Imam that he would make no more territorial concessions, and would not tolerate attempts to cause trouble in his border lands. War threatened, but an agreement was reached last February, under -which it was agreed to the delimitation of the common frontier between the two States and the appointment of a joint commission to decide the ownership of Nejrau. A2O years' treaty of friendship was also signed.]

Dm Sand, Kins of the Hedjaz.

THE SLOOP PENZANCE. wbich bas been sent by the British authorities at Aden to Hodeida-