The Journal of the Orders and Medals Society of America THE AWARDS OF THE FEDERATION OF SOUTH ARABIA

Owain Raw-Reese, OMSA #4978

The Political Background Protectorate became the Federation of the Emirates of the The Federation of South Arabia was on the southern coast of South. With the passage of time further states acceded to the the Arabian Peninsula. Aden, its capital, was seized and Federation. Britain, while maintaining a protection and occupied by the British on 19 January 1839 and thereafter, advisory status, still regarded the area as being of military various dependency treaties were negotiated with the various and strategic importance, and accordingly, to retain this key key inland tribes and their rulers - the security of Aden being region, maintained a strong hold over Aden. However, related to the hinterland. These treaties eventually became central to the effectiveness and success of the Federation was the basis of the British Protectorate in the region. The the status of Aden. territories included in the Protectorates, in addition to Aden proper, were for ease of administration divided into the At this time Aden was the world’s third busiest port with a Western and Eastern Protectorates, with the preeminent states large and diverse population and, under the direct control of being the Sultanate of Lahej on the West to whom Aden had the British, had developed a series of sophisticated social, belonged and the Sultanate of Qu’aiti in the East. economic, and political institutions. This was in sharp contrast to what was a tribal, patriarchal, and traditional Initially Aden was under the administration of the Bombay approach still found in the Protectorates. Accordingly, the Presidency of the British in India, and from 1932 it became a incorporation of Aden into the Federation was viewed with Chief Commissioner’s Province under the Government mutual suspicion by both Aden and the Protectorates, neither General of India. However in 1935 the Government of India wishing to have their own positions prejudiced, but the Act gave Aden crown colony status and thus it became Aden proclamation of republican rule in North Yemen in Colony in 1937, directly administered by the Colonial Office September of 1962 again concentrated minds. After much in London. While there was a fairly peaceful coexistence debate, Aden Colony was eventually merged with the with the inland tribes, the border with Yemen, despite an Protectorates in January of 1963, and the region became Anglo-Yemeni Treaty in 1934, proved a major source of known as the Federation of South Arabia. This declaration contention. To consolidate its position, Britain entered into was met with derision by the socialist Arab states and the further treaties. The death of the Yemeni ruler, the Imam regime in North Yemen called for an armed rising in Aden. Yahya in 1948, and the succession of his son Ahmed, led to further border conflicts, and despite a modus vivendi agree- From the formation of the Federation of South Arabia there ment in 1950-51, little was resolved. Britain again in 1952 were various issues to be resolved. These were primarily: entered into further advisory treaties with additional a) Eventual Independence. protectorate states. b) Widening of the franchise - the 1959 government had been elected on a 27% vote of an electorate totaling By 1954 sufficient treaties had been signed to lead to the 21,500 out of a population of 180,000. announcement of a scheme for the establishment of a formal c) Reorganization of federal institutions; federation of states within both the Western and Eastern d) Continuing British financial assistance, which was a Protectorates. (There had been a similar scheme in the early major cause of Aden’s and the Federation’s 1930s, but this had been abandoned upon the signing of the prosperity. 1934 Anglo-Yemeni Treaty.) Initial local interest in the proposed Federation was limited. However outside events In 1964, a conference agreed on the first issue; 1968 would be were to effect local attitudes. The blockade of the Suez Canal the year of independence with the other issues to be resolved in 1956 led to almost general unemployment in Aden - the in due course. However, the internal antipathy between Aden harbor virtually empty of ships, and many workers left Aden and the Protectorate leaders lead to strong divergence in only to return as Nationalist rebels. The formation of the opinions, especially over franchise and institutional reform. United Arab Republic between Egypt and Syria in 1958 and The economic and political power of Aden was perceived as a the subsequent affiliation of Yemen led to two main reactions. threat to the status of the Protectorates, who began to agitate The nationalistic elements viewed such a union as the way for the incorporation of the Eastern Protectorates into the ahead and this agitated for a closed relationship with Yemen, Federation to counteract the influence of Aden. while the majority of the rulers within the Protectorates saw such a relationship as ultimately leading to a centralized Thus, during these years, the stability of the region republican government and accordingly to their own demise. deteriorated and opposition to British plans increased, with Their minds thus concentrated support for the Federation and political strikes and violence, especially in Aden, and in 1963 on 11 February 1959 six of the twenty states in the Western a state of emergency was called in the region. In December

22 The Medal Collector Volume 49 Number 2 of that year, an attempt was made to assassinate the British Turkish forces threatened Aden itself, having captured Lahej High Commissioner, Sir Kennedy Trevaskis. Despite some twenty five miles away. pressure from various parties, the Eastern Protectorate States, other than the Sultan of Wahidi, refused to join the After the Great War, a need remained to maintain the security Federation. Thereon the political situation in the region of the region, and of Aden in particular. Accordingly in further deteriorated. The two main opposition groups 1921, a Colonel Lake raised the 1st Yemen Infantry. The amongst a plethora of diverse groupings were the National role of this Arab unit was to escort the Governor during his Liberation Front and the Front for the Liberation of South visits to the Protectorates and to provide support to any Yemen, and both increased their attacks on the government. British and Indian units as required. They were regarded as The NLF was eventually only taken seriously after in "smart in their drill and ran a fine hockey team." However, engineered a major revolt in the Radfan area that took some one of their tasks was to maintain a detachment under the 2,000 British troops to subdue. command of a British officer at the coaling station on the island of Perim. Here they provided a guard and controlled In February 1966, a British White Paper announced that all the coal coolies. Unfortunately in 1924, the officer British troops would be withdrawn by 31 December 1968. commanding this detachment, a Lieutenant Lawrence, was This announcement proved to be the beginning of the end for murdered by his men who then absconded to the mainland the Federation. Those supporting the Federation realized with all the money they could find. As a result the Yemen they could not count on the presence and support of the Infantry was then disbanded. British both with regard to defense (there was to be no defense treaty) and with regard to finance (there would be no In 1927 Aden had become an Air Command, air control of concessions or financial interest retained in the region). the region being seen as the cheapest and most efficient There was then a major realignment of forces, and despite means of maintaining a British presence in the region. attempts to control the situation this was not to be; violence Indeed, the RAF were to be responsible for the defense of continued to increase. In 1966 there were 531 incidents, Aden from 1928 until 1957. With the establishment of RAF including the murder of Colonel J. W. F. Gray, the superiority there then arose a need to protect the RAF and commanding officer of the Hadhrami Bedouin Legion. There also to aid the civil police if necessary, thus in 1928, only was also at this time much violence between the opposition three years after the disbandment of the 1st Yemen Infantry, parties, with each struggling for supremacy with a view to the Aden Protectorate Levies were formed, under the overall dominating the region after the departure of the British. command of the RAF, with Colonel M. C. Lake, CIE as the Despite attempts by the British for reconciliation, by mid- commanding officer. There remained, though, a vacuum 1967 the situation was dire. Near anarchy prevailed, the with regard to escorts for political officers during their visits Federation Ministries completely collapsed, the Federation into the Protectorates, and in 1938, at the suggestion of Major leaders now refused to hold public office, and the South Basil Seger, then British Agent for the Western Aden Arabian Army mutinied. The anarchy was such that the Protectorate, a force of Government Guards were raised to British sent the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders to restore assist in maintaining internal security. Sir Kennedy peace in Crater, a suburb of Aden. By early September 1967 Trevaskis describes them as a "gendarmerie, deployed about the British High Commissioner accepted the necessity of the countryside and along the frontier in a host of little forts dealing with the nationalists, and it was with the NLF who by to provide the state gendarmeries, the Tribal Guards, with now controlled over half of the twenty or so states of the support." During the next twenty years or so both the Guards Federation. Despite an unsuccessful attempt at a cease-fire and the Levies increased in strength, and the latter saw little and the promotion of a coalition government it was ultimately service during WWII. The APL was led by officers on loan with NLF to whom the British Government transferred from the British Army until 1945, when the RAF Regiment authority. The British left Aden on 30 November 1967 and took over. In 1957, responsibility for the APL was the People’s Republic of South Yemen was proclaimed. transferred from the Air Ministry to the War Office.

The Military Background With the formation of the Federation of the Emirates of the The development of the military within the region echoed to a South and then of the Federation of South Arabia, these certain extent the preoccupation of the British with the various units were reorganized. In 1959 the Government security of Aden, and the first unit to be raised was in 1856 by Guards along with the various Tribal Guards which were the then Political Resident in Aden, a Colonel Merewether. maintained by the various rulers were placed under the This unit became regularized as the Aden Troop and was a control of the Federal Ministry of Internal Security and subunit of the Indian Army, with such officers on renamed the Federal National Guard I and II, the former secondment. The unit was employed briefly in British operating in the Protectorates as a country-wide gendarmerie Somaliland, and later provided an advance guard for the and the latter as a rural police force in their various locations, Aden Movable Column which repelled an advancing Turkish and in Aden in liaison with the unarmed Civil Police and the army in 1915. From July 1915 to the end of hostilities, Aden Armed Police, who acted as a riot squad and guarded

23 The Journal of the Orders and Medals Society of America the banks and government buildings. In 1961, the APL along performed by any person which does not entail a gallantry with the Sultan of Lahej’s Regular Army became the Federal award but nevertheless entailed risk to life and therefore Regular Army - the Arab officers having insisted on the merited recognition, and also the Certificate of Meritorious insertion of Regular to differentiate themselves from the Service. FNG. This handover was the end of the APL allegiance to the British. The success of both the FNG and FRA depended The Order of South Arabia upon the loyalty of their Arab officers and initially, despite Badge: A seven-pointed star with a circular center depicting tribal rivalry, morale was good and the FRA performed well an upturned crescent entwined with a cloth, between in the Radfan Campaign of 1964. However, with the the tips of the crescent is a five-pointed star, below deterioration of security and the announcement of British which is a sheathed dagger. The reverse is plain. withdrawal in 1966, their reliability along with that of the The badges of the third and fourth classes, and the FNG became suspect, and their was heavy infiltration of NLF identical Medal of the Order are all 44mm; the size supporters. With a view to consolidating the expansion of of the badges of the two higher classes is unknown. these various forces, on 1 June 1967, four battalions of the FNG I were merged with the FRA, and the remainder of the FNG I as well as the FNG II and the Aden Police Forces were merged into the South Arabian Army and the South Arabian Police respectively. Due to tribal politics, the issue of the command of the SAA was highly sensitive, especially as the maintenance of a tribal balance within the officer corps had broken down. The mutiny which followed on 20 June demonstrated the Federal Government’s lack of control, and British troops were asked to help restore order to a situation to which nationalist insurgents had now taken advantage of. Order was eventually restored, but the local units could no longer be relied o, tribal divisions had broken into the open, and thereon the SAA was commanded by a committee. With the final departure of the British on 29 November, the SAA and the Federation ceased to exist. The last British officers to leave did not follow until February 1968 when some 28 officers attached to the Southern Yemeni Forces were dismissed. Thereon, all military aid from Britain was terminated.

The Orders, Decorations and Medals With regard to the awards of the Federation, it would appear Order of South Arabia, First Class Breast Star that these were instituted by the Supreme Council in either (Photocopy Illustration from Spink & Son Ltd records) 1963 or early 1964, the first awards being announced on Federation Day, 16 March 1964. In all instances the awards Star: An 85mm, seven-pointed rayed star with a central were designed by the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of medallion bearing a similar design to the badge, Defense of the Federation, Colonel J. B. Chaplain, DSO, surmounted by an Arabic inscription which OBE, and the manufacture was undertaken by Spink and Son translates as Hero of the Order of South Arabia. Ltd. Of St. James, London. In brief, the awards instituted, in Surrounding the central medallion are seven evenly- order of precedence, were as follows: spaced five-pointed stars.

Gallantry Medal, First Class Ribbon: 38mm wide in the Federation colors of three equal stripes of black, bright green, and pale blue, these The Order of South Arabia, First through Fourth Classes three stripes being separated by narrow stripes of Gallantry Medal, Second Class dull yellow. The ribbon of the fourth class is 32mm, while that of the medal, also 32mm, does not have The Medal of the Order of South Arabia the yellow stripes. The Military Service Medal All of the badges are suspended by a loop through a ring The Long Service and Good Conduct Medal affixed to the uppermost point of the star. They were manufactured by Spink and Son Ltd., who between 1965 and Also awarded by the Supreme Council were the Supreme 1966 produced them in the following quantities: Council Commendation which was to mark acts of bravery 24