مجموعة مختارة من الوثائق القانونية والتاريخية والجغرافية التي قدمت لمحكمة التحكيم لتأييد وجهة النظر المصرية
(تابع) المرفق رقم (11) التقرير العام "لأوين" حول أعمال لجنة حدود سيناء المؤرخ 28 أكتوبر 1906
"وزارة الخارجية المصرية، الكتاب الأبيض عن قضية طابا، القاهرة، 1989، ص 179-199"

         There are in the peninsula many Wells whom they visit every year and those who are specially reverenced are the following:-

         They also have a great regard for trees, and their women make them religious visits and pay their vows by lighting them up with candles and placing beads and small pieces of money on their branches or in holes in the trunks.

         The Sawarka, Ayaida, and Akharsa of El Arish district offer also sacrifices to the sea. Every year after harvest they visit the sea with their camels, and tents, wash themselves, their camels, and tents, and slay a sheep, giving a part of it - the head and legs - to the sea as its share.

         The natives are extremely superstitious and ignorant. There is not a single Arab in the peninsula who can read or write or cares to learn anything.

         There is, however, for the instruction of sedentary Arabs, a small school supported by the Waki, and another supported by English missionary of Gaza at El Arish, and a small school supported by the monks at Tor, but Nekhl there is no school yet.

APPENDEX (F)

Encouragement of Agriculture

         IN former Reports I have already explained that the Arabs of the peninsula are quite dependent on Syria for the grazing of their camels and flocks during the dry season. Now that the boundary line has been definitely settled, it is, in my opinion, important to try and prevent this annual exodus from the peninsula, and to improve the general state of our Bedouins. In order to encourage them to cultivate it is necessary to grant them greater facilities of water. This can only be done by the instruction of dams and improvement of wells.

         The scarcity of rain of late years has caused considerable dearth in the peninsula and many of the wells, which at the time of the Boundary Commission, ought to have held water, were completely dry. It is, in my opinion, only a question of deepening and building up the wells to prevent the sides falling in to ensure a permanent supply of water in most of the existing wells; but, in addition to the improvement of the wells, there are many places in the Wadi-el-Arish and probably in many other Wadis - notably in Wadi-el-Gedeirat, about which I have already written fully in my Report - where small dams could be constructed capable of storing up sufficient water to irrigate many thousands of feddans, which, at the present time, only require labour and water supply to develop.

         The great draw back, however, to any improvement in agriculture is the extreme laziness and indifference of the Arab. If he can find grazing, or can buy grain without the trouble of cultivating it himself, he will generally do so, but I am of opinion that the experiment of providing him the means of cultivating is well worth a trail.

         I submit that, from a military point of view, there is a strong argument against the improvement of the northern part of the peninsula - that is at present, it is practically an almost impossible desert for anything except a very small force, thus leaving Egypt, from a military point of view, and as regards its eastern frontier, in the position *************. For the military reasons, therefore, it may be advisable to leave this part ********* with the exception of Wadi-el-Gedairat and Kossiama, ************** and at great distance from the Suez Canal ******* of wells, ****************************************************

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