Fri. March 5. [5 March 1909] All my servants went off to the town at 8
and did not return till the afternoon. I remained with the horses and
Tom and a soldier. Wrote to Willy and Sir A. all morning and lunched
off some tongue and an orange. About 2 there came to see me Wali
Effend ibn Nijris ([Arabic characters]) to whom Khoury had given me a
letter. He stayed till nearly 5 and was most interesting. He says
Kiamil has fallen and been replaced by Hussain Hilmy, that the Mejlis
has quarrelled with the Sultan and are going to depose him in favour
of Yusef Izzud Din. Wali is very hopeless as to the future which is the
more important as he is a Moslem. He says there is no probablility of
anything like just rule and is certain there will be a universal
conflagration. Then he thinks and hopes the powers will have to step
in and that is the only prospect he can see. Der [Dayr az Zawr] has a
member; Wali has been asked to join the local committee but has not
yet done so because he is sahib shughl and he thinks they are quite
worthless. He says there is much talk in the Arab newspapers of a
separate Arab assembly and he fears that the newspapers will stir up
trouble and revolt. He does not believe the Arabs have many good
men at present but in the next generation it will be different. He wants
everything to be set in order by tomorrow so that he may profit and the
prospect of a slow improvement by which his children's children might
benefit is of no account to him. He says the difficulty is that there is no
real union. Aleppo [Halab] hates Der and Der hates Damascus
[Dimashq (Esh Shams, Damas)] and so forth. He has lands at
Mayadin [Al Mayadin] that might be worth £15000 and are worth so
many piastres. He dares not put money into irrigation and
improvements because he cd not get sure protection against the
raiding Arabs. Also there is not enough capital to develop the
country. He complains bitterly that all the best and most secure lands
are Chiflik. He says town people like the Khouris are very slow to run
risk and very unenterprising. He proposed a scheme of buying and
owning land out here to Khouri but the latter wd have nothing to say to
it. The Mutesarrif here is a notorious extortioner and taker of bribes.
Apparently I seem[?] to have my escort and go peacefully on my way
- no telegram from Aleppo!