ple of some
education and grasp of their own affairs, and the country-folk are a
harum-scarum set of scallywags who used to attack Turks or British
indifferently, whichever happened to be in difficulties for the moment.
They are best left to the secular arm for some time to come. Medical
missions, staffed by both sexes, could do good work at urban centres,
and a few river steamers, or even launches, would extend their efforts
considerably.

We now come to Arabia itself, "the Peninsula of the Arabs," where
orthodox Islam has its strongholds and missionary enterprise is not
encouraged.

Geographers differ somewhat as to what constitutes Arabia proper, but
for the purposes of modern practical politics it may be considered as
all the peninsula south of a line from the head of the Gulf of Akaba to
the head of the Persian Gulf, and consisting of Nejd, the Hejaz,[C]
Asir, Yamen, Aden protectorate, Hadhramaut and Oman. Each of these
divisions should be dealt with separately in considering Arabian
politics nowadays, and it will be well for the "mandatories" concerned
if further sub-divisions do not complicate matters; I omit the
sub-province of Hasa (once a dependency of the Turkish _pashalik_ at
Bussora) because, since the Nejdi _coup d'etat_ in 1912, the Emir ibn
Saoud will probably control its policy _vis-a-vis_ of missionaries and
Europeans generally, though the Sheikh of Koweit may expect to be
consulted.

Nejd comes first as we move southward: impinging as it does on Syria,
Mesopotamia, and the Hejaz, its politics are involved in theirs to a
certain extent and its affairs require careful handling. It is certainly
no field for unrestrained missionary effort, but there is no reason why
a medical mission should not be posted at Riadh if the Emir is willing.
There are two rival houses in Nejd--the ibn Saoud and ibn Rashid, the
former pro-British and the latter (hitherto) pro-Turk; Emir Saoud held
ascendancy before the War and should be able to maintain it now that
Turco-German influence is a thing of the past. He is an enlightened,
energetic man and was a close friend of our gallant "political," the
late Captain Shakespeare, who was killed there early in the War during
an engagement between the two rival houses. The question of missionary
enterprise in Nejd could well be put before the Emir for consideration
on its merits. Such procedure may seem weak to an out-and-out
missionary, but even he would hesitate to keep poultry