Antonin Besse of Aden: The Founder of St Antony’s College Oxford

268 Pages·1986·26.11 MB·English

by  David Footman (auth.)

ANTONIN BESSE OF ADEN
SfAntony'sMacmillanSeries
Generaleditor:ArchieBrown.FellowofStAntony'sCollege.Oxford
RoyAllisonFINLAND'S RELATIONSwrmTIlESOVIETUNION. 1944-84
SaidAmirArjomand(editor)FROMNATIONAUSMTO REVOLUTIONARYISLAM
AndersAshmdPRIVATEENTERPRISEIN EASTERNEUROPE
ArchieBrown(editor)POLITICALCULTUREANDCOMMUNISTSTUDIES
ArchieBrownandMichaelKaser(editors)SOVIETPOLICYFORTIlE 19800
S.B.BurmanCHIEFDOMPOLITICS ANDAUENLAW
RenfrewChristieELECfRlCITY,INDUSTRYAND CLASS INSOUTHAFRICA
RobertO.CollinsandFrancisM.Deng(editors)TIlEBRITISHINTIlESUDAN, 1898-1956
WilhelmDeistTIlE WEHRMACHTAND GERMANREARMAMENT
JuliusA.EliasPLATO'SDEFENCEOFPOETRY
Ricardo Ffrench-Davis and Ernesto Tironi (editors) LATIN AMERICA AND TIlE NEW
INTERNATIONALECONOMICORDER
DavidFootmanANTONINBESSEOFADEN
BohdanHarasymiwPOLITICALEUTERECRUITMENTINTIlESOVIETUNION
NeilHarding(editor)TIlESTATEIN SOCIALISTSOCIETY
RichardHoltSPORTANDSOCIETYIN MODERNFRANCE
AlbertHouraniEUROPEANDTIlEMIDDLEEAST
AlbertHouraniTIlEEMERGENCEOF TIlEMODERN MIDDLEEAST
J.R.JenningsGEORGESSOREL
A.Kemp-Welch(translator)THE BIRTHOF SOLIDARITY
Paul Kennedy and Anthony Nicholls (editors) NATIONALIST AND RACIALIST MOVE
MENTS IN BRITAlN AND GERMANY BEFORE 1914
RichardKindersley(editor)IN SEARCH OF EUROCOMMUNISM
Bohdan Krawchenko SOCIAL CHANGE AND NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN
TWENTIETH-CENTURYUKRAINE
GiselaC.LebzelterPOLmCALANTI-SEMmSM IN ENGLAND, 1918-1939
NancyLubinLABOURAND NATIONALITY IN SOVIETCENTRALASIA
C.A.MacDonaldTIlEUNITEDSTATES,BRITAINAND APPEASEMENT. 1936-1939
DavidNichollsHAmIN CARIBBEANCONTEXT
PatrickO'Brien(editor)RAILWAYS AND TIlEECONOMICDEVELOPMENTOFWEST
ERNEUROPE. 1830-1914
RogerOwen(editor)STUDIESINTIlEECONOMICANDSOCIALHISTORYOF PALES-
TINEIN TIlENINETEENTH ANDTWENTIETHCENTURIES
D.C.M.PlattandGuidodiTella(editors)ARGENTINA, AUSTRALIAANDCANADA
IrenaPowellWRITERS ANDSOCIETYIN MODERNJAPAN
T. H. Rigby and Ferenc Feher (editors) POLmCAL LEGmMATION IN COMMUNIST
STATES
MarilynRueschemeyerPROFESSIONALWORKAND MARRIAGE
A.J.R.Russell-WoodTIlEBLACKMAN IN SLAVERYAND FREEDOMIN COLONIAL
BRAZIL
AronShaiBRITAINAND CHINA. 1941-47
Lewis H. Siegelbaum TIlE POLmCS OF INDUSTRIAL MOBILIZATION IN RUSSIA,
1914-17
DavidStaffordBRITAINAND EUROPEAN RESISTANCE. 1940-1945
NancyStepanTIlEIDEAOFRACE IN SCIENCE
Marvin Schwartz TIlE POLmCS OF BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY IN TIlE ERA OF
DISRAELIAND GLADSTONE
GuidodiTellaARGENTINA UNDERPER6N, 1973-76
RosemaryThorp(editor)LATINAMERICA INTIlE 19300
RosemaryThorpand LaurenceWhitehead(editors)INFLATION AND STABIL1SATION IN
LATIN AMERICA
RudolfL.T6k~(editor)oPPOSmONIN EASTERNEUROPE
ANTONIN BESSE
OF ADEN
The FounderofStAntony'sCollege
Oxford
DavidFootman
M
inassociationwith
StAntony'sCollege,Oxford
© Estate of David Footman and St Antony's College,
Oxford, 1986
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1986 978-0-333-38508-1
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission
of this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied
or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance
with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended).
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to
this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and
civil claims for damages.
First published 1986
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG212XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Footman, David
Antonin Besse of Aden.-(Political culture
and Communist studies)
1. Besse, Antonin 2. St. Antony's College
-History 3. Businessmen-Biography
I. Title II. Series
378.425'74 LF741.S3
ISBN 978-1-349-07733-5 ISBN 978-1-349-07731-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-07731-1
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Map 1 TheFederationofSouthArabia,1959-67 viii
Map2 AdenColony,c.1956 ix
1 1899 1
2 TheYoungestCorporal 5
3 Passageto Aden 11
4 TheFinnofBesse 18
5 WorldWarI 25
6 Stoner 31
7 TheCrisis 37
8 TheSettlement 45
9 TheEarlyTwenties 52
10 Shell 59
11 ASecondment 65
12 TheDepression 71
13 Staff 75
14 TheTitleDeeds 79
15 TheIndiansandtheArabs 85
16 Progress 91
17 Achievement 102
18 TheAbyssinianWar 109
19 MariaTheresaDollars 120
20 ArabianAirways 126
21 StaffAgain 133
22 WorldWarII 138
23 AdeninWar-Time 144
24 TheFinninEthiopia 153
25 Post-War 162
26 StAntony'sI 172
27 StAntony'sII 179
28 1949-50 1'88
vi Conren~
29 TheFinalChapter 198
AppendixA AB'sReading 209
AppendixB AB'sBusiness 214
AppendixC AB'sWritings 235
Nores 243
Index 250
Acknowledgements
ThisbookisbasedmainlyonAntonioBesse'slettersandotherrecords
kindly made available by the lateMme (Hilda) Besse at LeParadou,
Cavalaire; and, in Aden, by A. B. Besse who also enabled me to
consulttheoriginalCourmontmemoir.IhavetothankJeanSelignac,
his nephew, for AB's early lettersto thefamily;andEdwardMayne
and C. W.H. Fennforcertainletters and records ofthetwentiesand
thirties.
A full list of those whose help has made the compilation possible
would beinordinatelylong, butin particularI wish to mentionR. N.
Bagadia, Sir David Barran,A. Benoit,MIle GermaineBernard,P. R.
Besse,A.D.Bethell,WilliamCave,Sir ReginaldChampion,G.W. S.
Clucas,R. A. H. Clyde,H.J. Collins, MmeCollins-Besse,SirWilliam
and LadyDeakin, I. DiDomenico,G. P. Dwyer,LordGodber,Mme
Godefroid,DrKurtHahn,ViscountHall,SirJohnHathorn-Hall,A.J.
Jolly, J. R. Kynaston, Mohamed A. Luqman, Duncan Mackintosh,
MmeInaMarek,R. C.Martin,SirJohnMasterman,PrabhulalMehta,
William Merson, Hugh Millar, Mohamed AIy, M. G. Patel,William
Sands, Maganlal T. Shah, Sir Douglas Veale, Maurice Weerts, Sir
HenryWillink,andJ. M.Wisocky.
Many of the above are no longer with us. Most of this book was
written before the British evacuation of Aden and the revolution in
Ethiopia- eventsthathave brought about the obliterationof the old
orderoneithersideoftheBabalMandab.
Throughout AB's voluminous correspondence his comments on
collaborators and associates are apt to be scathing and often unjus
tified;andincertaincasesIhavesuppressedthenames.
Responsibilityforallthatiswrittenhereremainsmyown.
Theauthorandpublisherswish to thankTheNationalTrustfor Places
of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, for permission to reproduce
"If" by Rudyard Kipling from the Definitive Edition of Rudyard
Kipling's Verse
DAVID FOOTMAN
vii
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Map1 TheFederationofSouthArabia,1959-67
Map1 AdenColonyc.1956