1893] The Sultan's Arab Stud 103 



Sultan's mares. There were, I believe, about 150 of them, all 'mares 

 from the Arabs,' but the greater part of them of very small account. 

 Among the herd, however, one was able to pick out about a dozen really 

 good ones, and two or three of the first class. But there was no mare 

 there at all equal to Ali Pasha Sherif's best, or the best of our own. 

 The best I found had come from Ibn Rashid who, two years ago, sent 

 thirty. But the Egyptian who manages the establishment tells me that 

 they will insist upon tall horses, and I fancy the Bedouins who send 

 the Sultan mares get the big ones on purpose for him, and keep the 

 little ones, which are the best. There was a great hulking mare which 

 Sotamm Ibn Shaalan had brought with him, one I feel sure was never 

 foaled among the Roala. Of horses they showed us seven, the best 

 being without comparison a Seglawi of Ali Pasha Sherif's, an exact 

 match to our Shahwan. This was a really beautiful and perfect horse, 

 but of diminutive size compared with the others, and so less esteemed 

 here, though the Egyptian knew his worth. Next to him was an im- 

 mensely showy chestnut from Ferhan Jerba, a beautifully topped horse 

 of great quality, but a little overgrown, and, so the manager told me, 

 less good at the stud than the other. Beyond these two there was not 

 one I would have cared to own, two or three of them being quite unfit 

 to breed from. The management of the stud is, I fancy, very defective, 

 as there were certainly four mares out of five barren. There is, how- 

 ever, enough material to make a good stud out of. I should pick out 

 twenty of the best and and sell the others. There were a good many 

 black mares among them, sent as rarities, but I doubt if black is ever a 

 good Arab colour. One of these came from Ibn Rashid and was the 

 best ; Sarah Bernhardt was also in the paddock looking on. 



" Munir is rather a fine-looking man, with a vigorous, intelligent face, 

 and modern manner — not at all one of the old-fashioned, sleepy Pashas 

 — and in all he says he goes straight to the point. He impressed me 

 favourably. 



" 2gth April. — Admiral Woods Pasha called on me and talked prin- 

 cipally about the Armenian question. He says it has been grossly ex- 

 aggerated in the London press ; that he has seen the text of Newberry, 

 the American Consul's Report, which is entirely favourable to the 

 Sultan's Government, that the ' Times ' refused to publish it, that Sir 

 Clare Ford had sent it home, but that the Foreign Office ignores it. 

 He has written to the ' Daily Telegraph ' a rather weak letter headed, 

 ' Justice to Turkey and the Turks.' But I told him justice was quite out 

 of date now in England, and that he would get a better chance of a 

 hearing if he did not speak of it. To be listened to one must threaten, 

 not plead for mercy. 



" To luncheon with the Sultan of Johore and his suite, including 

 Mohammed Moelhi and Ahmed Pasha Ali, A.D.C. to Sultan Abdul 



