ABSTRACT
APRIL 1937 really marked a turning point in Hadhramaut history for it W2S then that we began the organization of the country and its government on new lines. I had come back to Mukalla in the middle of the previous November. expecting to stay for six weeks. The programme I had with me was quite a minor one. but events had outrun it. Cut off from quick communication with the outside world. consultation with the powers that. he had not been possible, and this had simplified my peace making. From now on inevitably things would be different. The Hadhramaut had come into official ken and I often fo~d that the need for discussion and approval of action proposed meant that the psychological moment had to be missed. In any ~se the periods of pacification and_ organization could not be sharply marked.' As will be seen there were not infrequent conflicts and failures ahead of us, Arabs are impatient folk and without a system of government al)d justice, still more without reliable forces and police to back it up, stable peace was not yet possible. Hopes were high in Mukalla that now that the beduins had peace there would be a~ end ofoppression and injustice for the t()wnspeople. This, of course, ,vas hoping too much, for the Sultan's ministers and servants had not the tradition nor the experience to give it.
