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POSTAL COMMUNICATION WITH THE
BOUNDARY COMMISSION 1902-03
The Aden
Boundary Commission moved up to Dthala in January 1902
and spent the remainder of that year there liaising with
their Turkish counterparts and meeting local chiefs to
determine who owned what where, who owned allegiance to
whom and generally preparing to carry out survey work.
The Commission would remain based near Dthala until late
in 1903, after which the Commission was much more mobile
as it moved southwest towards the border on the sea
opposite Perim.
The Commission needed a reasonably
frequent and comparatively quick means of postal
communication with Aden. This short article deals only
the system of postal runners that was used whilst the
Commission was near Dthala.
Prior to the Commission leaving Aden
arrangements were made for a postal run to the
Commission every other day from Aden, using a team of
nine camel-mounted runners working in relays with each
runner and a supervisor being paid two Rupees a day.
This system allowed the journey of nearly 90 miles in
theory to be covered in 20 hours travelling time, but as
the runners could not travel at night on one of the
sections (through the Radfan) it was going to take 25
hours for the mail to reach Dthala, and due to the
timings 32 hours for the return journey. The timetable,
with the legs to be covered by each runner, was:
|
Aden
to Dthala |
Location |
Dthala to Aden |
|
dep 1700 Days 1, 3
etc |
Tawahi |
arr 1400 Days 3, 5
etc |
|
1900 |
Sheikh Othman
|
1200 |
|
2200 |
Lahej |
0900 |
|
arr 0100 Days 2,4
etc |
Shekka [Chakka] |
dep 0600 Days 3, 5
etc |
|
dep 0600 Days 2,4
etc |
Shekka [Chakka] |
arr 1800 Days 2, 4
etc |
|
1100 |
Dar Sheban |
1300
|
|
1300 |
Assondu |
1100 |
|
1600 |
Kafla |
0800 |
|
arr 1800 Days 2,4
etc |
Dthala |
dep 0600 Days 2,4
etc |
|
A
lone man on his camel would have been somewhat
vulnerable travelling outside his own tribal
area and the nine postal runners were therefore
working in relays as follows: |
|
Runner |
Days |
Stages by each Runner |
|
Runner ‘A’ |
3, 5,
7, etc |
1200-1400 Sheikh Othman to Aden |
|
1, 3,
5, etc |
1700-1900 Aden to Sheikh Othman
|
|
Runner ‘B’ |
3, 5,
7, etc |
0900-1200 Lahej to Sheikh Othman
|
|
1, 3,
5, |
1900-2200 Sheikh Othman to Lahej |
|
Runner ‘C’ |
3, 5,
7, etc |
0600-0900 Shekha to Lahej |
|
1/2,
3/4, 5/6, etc |
2200-0100 Lahej
to Shekha |
|
Runner ‘D’ |
2, 6,
10 etc |
0600-1100 Shekha
to Dar Sheban |
|
4, 8,
12 etc |
1300-1800 Dar
Sheban to Shekha |
|
Runner ‘E’ |
2, 6,
10 etc |
1300-1800 Dar
Sheban to Shekha |
|
4, 8,
12, etc |
0600-1800 Shekha
to Dar Sheban |
|
Runner ‘F’ |
2, 6,
10, etc |
1100-1300 Dar
Sheban to Assondu |
|
4, 8,
12, etc |
1100-1300
Assondu to Dar Sheban |
|
Runner ‘G’ |
2, 6,
10, etc |
1100-1300
Assondu to Dar Sheban |
|
4, 8,
12, etc |
1100-1300 Dar
Sheban to Assondu |
|
Runner ‘H’ |
2, 4,
6, etc |
0800-1100 Kafla
to Assondu |
|
1600-1800 Assondu
to Kafla |
|
Runner ‘J’ |
2, 4,
6, etc |
0600-0800 Dthala to Kafla |
|
1600-1800 Kafla to Dthala |
|
It looks to have been the
sort of timetable that should work well in
theory but not in practice, though remarkably
the system worked well. The supervisor must have
been worth his two Rupees a day several times
over! The cost of this dawk was quite
considerable. The Commission budget included one
thousand Rupees per month for the dawk and
another thousand for the cost of official
telegrams and postage. Shekka, or Chakka as it
was being called in 1904, was 7 miles SSE of
Nobat Dakim. It was to become an important
signalling relay station for the use of
heliograph between the Commission’s camp outside
Dthala and Aden. |
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