"Arabia Felix"
In the High Yemen. By Hugh Scott. (John Murray. as.) OF all the settled regions of Arabia, the Yemen, "Arabia Felix," of the Romans, who vainly tried to conquer it, is perhaps the least understood by non-Arabs. Its very population is variously assessed ; its history, rich and suggestive, is a mixture of legend and guess- work ; and estimates of its potentialities have differed enormously.
Dr. Scott, who went to the Yemen northwards from the Aden Protectorate in 1937-38, though keenly interested in the past and in the future of the Yemen, was bent on scientific study of the present. His expedition, in which another British Museum scientist, Mr. Britton, shared, was an entomological enterprise. Dr. Scott was well equipped, for, through a visit to Ethiopia some years previously, he was adequately familiar with natural conditions at the southern end of the Red Sea Rift. Of his highest hopes, however, he was cheated, and this through no fault of his own. The Zaidi Imam of the Yemen, a spiritual and political autocrat who gained inde- pendence for his land from the Ottomans, looked curiously at attempts by Europeans to penetrate into the fastnesses of his State, and it was not easy to convince the Yemeni authorities that the pursuit of bugs and beetles was the sole aim of the expedition. Though Dr. Scott engaged influential support, including that of the Imam's own Ministers, the ruler would not allow these Englishmen
to hunt insects where they would. Especially was he unwilling to let them search at over 9,000 feet—the very purpose for which they had made the arduous journey.
Nevertheless, the expedition did discover things, and it was well worth the effort. The non-technical account which Dr. Scott has written, decked out with abundant photographs, is informative though the author does not belong to that select band of Roglist Arabians whose pens have been moved to imperishable prose through contact with the fascinating Arab race and its stimulating environ- ment. In particular, the relationship of south-west Arabia to East Africa—a highly interesting though still controversial subject—is most sanely treated in this book.
It is an ironical reflection that today it is far more difficult for Europeans to examine the Yemen than it was a century ago. For this, the Arabs are by no means wholly to blame. The Imam, despite mediaeval aspects of his regime has a shrewd notion of what happens in the outside world, and tough, after he had made a treaty with the British in 1934, he appeared to allow to the Italians unusual influence in his kingdom' he saw plainly the trends of the time. Many observers, indeed, think that it was owing to the difficulty in bending this proud Arab king and people to his will that Mussolini embarked on his campaign against Ethiopia. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that the Zaidi's suspicions of Euro- pean intentions are lively, though it is notable that the Imam's relations with the British in Aden have remained unexceptionable. We may share Dr. Scott's hope that the British policy in the Aden Protectorate—making it clear that the future of the land lies with the Arabs themselves, and that alien colonisation is not con- templated—will in time soften the outlook of those who control
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