Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-14
POET LEADER OF DRUSE OUTLAW
ARMY ARRIVES IN CAPITAL
Prince ArsIan, Chief Aide of
Arab King, Is Here to Con-
fer With Countrymen.
His 1000 Followers Escaped
After Rebellion Against
French in 1927.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

A hard boiled soldier, leader OF an
outlaw army of 1000 encamped for two
years in the middle of the Arabian
desert and one of the foremost modern
Arabian poets, Prince Abel Arslan of
the Lebanon Druses has arrived In
Washington and is comforting with his
countrymen.
Prince Arslan, for whose capture dead
or alive the French protectorate III
Syria has offered a heavy reward,
escaped from the desert bivouac through
Palestine, carrying the first passport to
the United States yet issued from the
court of Ibn Saud, King OF Arabia, IN
the borders of whose territory the out
law army had found refuge.
An erect military figure with IRON
gray hair, the DruSe leader plans soon
to return to the refugee army whose
minimum demand, he says, is an in
dependent Syrian nation which shall
include Syria, Palestine. 1rak and
TranSjordania under a single govern
ment.
Prince Is Second in Command.
The desert army, composed mainly of
DruseS with some Christian contin-
gents is the remains of the force which
carried on the Druse rebellion against
the French in 1927 and then. refusing
to surrender, escaped across the Arabian
border where it has held itself together
as the nucleus of the independence
movement. Prince Arslan is the second
in command The leader is Sultan
Pasha, who was also the chief spirit OF
the rebellion and who is now with the
troops. Arslan was obliged to leave
temporarily by the necessity OF q Surg1-
cal operation which was performed in
a Jerusalem hospital before he came to
the United States. All but himself and
five other leaders, he said, have been
offered amnesty by the French If they
will turn to Syria and take the oath
of allegiance, but the desert army has
dlwindled very little.
The army, he said, is encamped near
a little oasis on the western edge of
Arabia near the TranSjordania border
from which they can move into Syria
at a moments notice and where their
presence is a continuous threat to the
security of French control. They are
literally buried in the hot, barren desert.
The oasis itself has no vegetation. The
nearest cultivated land is approximately
125 miles away, and all supplies must
be brought in across the desert by
camels, mules and horses. A plentiful
water supply has been obtained by
sinking At arteSian wells.
Like Medieval Army.
It is like medieval army, each man
bringing his own arms and horses. 1t
is supporting itself in part by salt min
ing, the product being exchanged in
Trans ordania for supplies. Although
life is extremely hard many of the men
have no incentive to return to civiliza-
ton because they lost all their property
in the rebellion and are animated only
by thoughts of vengeance and the
restoration of Syrian independence
Practically unknown to the world an
almost miraculous transformation is be-
ing brought about in the Arabian in
terror, where few Europeans have ever
penetrated, by the political genius of
Ibn Saud, chief and high priest of the
WahablS or Moslem Puritans, who has
harbored the outlaw army, Prince ArS-
Ian said. Since Ibn Saud'S overthrow
of Mecca and capture of King Hussein,
the lineal descendant of Mohammed,
according to the Druse prince, the mys-