Page 75 - Neglected Arabia Vol 2

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1 Henry A, Bilkert
I A Tribute ironi one of his colleagues, Dr. C. Stanley G. Mylrea, given at a Memorial
I Service held in the Middle Collegiate Church, New York City,
I on Sunday, February 17th
O VN January 21st, 1929, there passed from the rpll of the Arabian
’ Mission, the name of our honored colleague, Henry Bilkert. He
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I was accompanying Mr. Charles R. Crane, the well known former
r member of the United States Diplomatic Service, on the cross
fj desert journey from Basrah to Kuwait. The party consisted of two motor
In the first rode Mr. Crane and Mr. Bilkert. In the second were
g| c;irs*
rl Mr. J. C. Crane and a valet. About halt way to Kuwait they were at-
jil tacked by a body of Ikhwan, Ibn Saud’s fanatical Wahabi tribesmen, who
cl regard all Muslims outside their own sect as heretics, upon whom, failing
|jrf absolute surrender, war must l>e waged to the death. The Arabs ojxmed
H fire, hitting and mortally wounding Mr. Bilkert. The cars wheeled and
hi raced back at full speed in the direction from which they had come. The
Arabs rode hard after them, firing as they rode, but the cars outdistanced
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their pursuers and escaped. Had a stray bullet hit one of the cars in a vital
£1 spot and stalled it, the entire party would almost certainly have l)een mas-
5:4 sacred. Mr. Bilkert died about an hour after he was wounded and some
”1 time before the party succeeded in reaching Basrah.
j j On the following day Mr. Bilkert was given a public funeral. It was
fll described by one of our missionaries as absolutely marvelous and the same ? 4
Al eyewitness went on to say, “f have never in my life seen anything like it.”
1-1 The service was held in the English Church, and was conducted by the Rev.
[1 lulm Van Ess assisted by the Chaplain of the English Church. "The
Hi Times uf Mesopotamia" said. "Never before has the dcuth of u British or )
D* American subject in Basrah occasioned such a spontaneous and magnificent •* ; s
6 fl demonstration of love, respect and grief as that which the funeral of the i
1 Kev. Henry Bilkert called forth. The scene at the service at St. Peter’s
r 1 Church was amazing; All the communities and creeds of Basrah were rep-
I resented, and they filled the church to overflowing. The British people were
{ -J practically all there. There were Indians and Anglo Indians in strong I
j - numbers. Jews and Arabs jostled one another in the thronged standing
5|>ace all round the aisle, men wearing fezes and women in their colored
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abbas being a strange sight within those walls. The funeral- cortege as it
wound its way from Ashar to Wakinah was wonderful to behold, 122 cars
cm forming the procession. Outside the cemetery there was a guard of honor
(f of boy. scouts, with heads bent and staves dipped. At the grave side the
pi Kev. John Van Ess delivered the committal service; the Rev. Dirk Dykstra
[ 3 rcacl Psalm XXIII and offered prayer,^nd the Rev. Garabed, pastor of the
■ ’J Arabic Protestant Church, Basrah, offered a prayer in Arabic. The pall
'.1 bearers were Col. J. C. Ward, Major-Sharpe, Mr. G. H. V. Hooi>er, Dr.
D* McRitchie, Mr. Moir and Mr. Essebaggers. The coffin was draj>ed in the
| « flag of the United States of America, and covered with many wreaths of
lluwers.”
B The news of Mr. Bilkert’s death has come upon his colleagues with all
3 the force which blows of this kind must inevitably inflict. He was so near i
^ lo us and so very much alive. • Only a few days ago I received a letter from
yl him, probably one of the very last he wrote, dated but three days before he
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