Abdullah Celebrates

Sir Herbert Samuel, British High Commissioner for Palestine, and other notables from neighboring countries foregathered at Amman, capital of Transjordania, to celebrate the recently acquired independence of that State.

The Emir Abdullah, ruler of the country, read a declaration agreed upon by the British conferring rights of autonomous government on Transjordania. Sir Herbert Samuel, replying, said: "Great Britain would continue her interest . . . the country would be what the Arabs made of it."

Transjordania, or more properly Kerak, lies south of French Syria, to the east of Palestine and Hedjaz, to the west of Iraq and to the north of the Emirate of Jebel Shammar. The present Ruler is Abdullah, second son of King Hussein of Hedjaz and his seat of Government is at Amman. Transjordania became a definite country after the 1918 armistice. Previously it was an area without distinct frontiers, inhabited by nomadic tribes who only gave effective allegiance to their own chiefs while admitting a loose overlordship of one of the great Emirs.