Page 152 - Arabian Studies (V)

142 Arabian Studies V

of Sana, from 1900 onwards, they fought continuously against the
Imam Muhammad ‘All Mansur, at the same time harassing the
British on their southern flank in Aden and becoming involved in a
series of ‘frontier’ incidents. There was in fact no delineated
frontier and this was a constant source of Anglo-Turkish friction.
As early as 1892 the Political Resident in Aden, General J. Jopp,
had made arrangements to survey the tribal areas between Aden
and the Yemen. The work, under Colonel Wahab (later Wauhope),
was soon abandoned as a result of local unrest, but some mapping
of the borderlands was carried out. Fighting eventually broke out
between the Turks and British forces sent from Aden. After a
severe defeat, the Turks agreed to negotiate a frontier settlement,
and an Anglo-Turkish Boundary Commission was consequently
appointed in November 1901. It convened initially early in the
following year, but by the beginning of 1903 no progress had been
made. The Turks remained obstructive, continuing to occupy some
territory considered by the British to be ‘on the wrong side of the
line’. In an attempt to rectify this stalemate, a British force consist­
ing of 2,200 men and a mountain battery was sent up-country from
Aden in March 1903 to deal with any military eventuality and two
Royal Navy vessels appeared in Aden harbour. These ships were
assigned to patrol the Red Sea and serve as a specific deterrent to
the Turks’ intended reinforcement from Syria of their troops in
northern Yemen. An increase in Turkey’s military capability in
northern Yemen would have considerably enhanced its chances of
success in the south against Aden.
The Turks, therefore, withdrew from the disputed locations at
the end of March 1903, and, having resumed business, the
Commission returned with its military escort to Aden on 23 May
1904. The findings of the Commission, published in April 1909,
were in fact never ratified by the Turkish Government but were
finally incorporated in the Anglo-Turkish Convention of 1914.
One of the two Royal Navy ships which were sent to Aden and
the Red Sea in 1903 was the gunboat H.M.S. Harrier built at
Devonport in 1894, lent for special service in the Red Sea by C-in-C
Cruiser Squadron and officially designated to suppress piracy and
the slave trade, a worthy enough cause no doubt as a front to suit
the temper of the time. Aboard Harrier was a junior officer aged
twenty-two whose name was unaccountably removed from the
ship’s books in December 1902, the recently promoted Lieutenant
W. Leveson Gower.
William Spencer Leveson Gower was born on 11 July 1880 and,
having entered Dartmouth on 15 January 1894 went to sea on 15
January 1896 for three years in H.M.S. Narcissus, at that time on