3 Review(s)

'So we left without glory but without disaster ' Sir Humphrey Trevelyan, the last High Commissioner of the Federation of South Arabia. In 1967, 139 years after their arrival in Aden, the British withdrew from the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Their departure was abrupt, messy and controversial. Using important, previously unpublished material and original interviews with a range of individuals, both British and Yemeni, who lived through this defining period of colonial history, "Without Glory in Arabia" tells the story of the final few years of British rule in Aden and the neighbouring Eastern and Western Aden Protectorates. While some view British rule, on the whole, as beneficial to the local population, others insist that very little was achieved. Worse, Britain did not provide a structure of government constitution which met the conflicting needs of Aden and the Protectorate. This illuminating book brilliantly sets the 'scuttle' - as the episode came to be known - in context with a thorough re-examination of the background against which the events of the 1960s unfolded in this obscure backwater of the British Empire.