Further East the clouds are blacker, but likely to be
dissipated more quickly after a sharp storm. Here, again, the trouble is likely to be worse for others than for us, but we have a profound distaste for killing from the air ignorant Arabs because they are led by highly disagreeable sheikhs to attack those whom we are bound to protect. All- through the winter the Sheikh of Mutair,-Faisal al Dawish, has been leading Akhwan raiding parties over the borders of Iraq, Transjordania and Koweit, killing men and carrying off cattle. The Sheikh of Koweit and the Royal Air Force have attacked the raiders on several occasions. These raiders from the Wahabi tribes of .Nejd are nominally the subjects of the Emir Ibn Saud, King of the Hejaz. He has not restrained his lawless subjects, being afraid, no doubt, of inevitable criticisms that in his kingdom of the Hejaz he is less of a strict puritanical Wahabi than he was. Now, however, so far from being able to check them, he appears to have found it necessary or expedient actually to support them with supplies and with his blessing. This means more trouble, but it is likely to recoil upon his own head.
