Coll 6/9 'Jeddah Reports Jany 1931–' [‎164v] (329/802)

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make further efforts to secure the Koweit Neutral Zone Oil Concession for his
i^ e assi ^ re d.Sir Andrew Ryan that he had as good as got a concession for
the whole Red Sea littoral, including the area in the North-Western Hejaz, Asir
and the Farsan Islands. He hoped also to get an option for the construction of
a Mecca-Jedda Railway. Little has been heard of this project since the cancel
lation ot the Jeelani Concession (paragraph 123 of the report for June), but a
French group are said to be interested, and Mr. Ydlibi thought he might as
well try to cut them out. He admitted that there were difficulties in the way of
the scheme for a bank which he propounded last year, but not that he had
abandoned it. He said nothing about another project with which he is said to
be associated, viz., the provision by Roumanian interests of bulk storage for
oil, &c. at Jedda, Rabigh and Yanbu’. Nor did he refer to an episode in his
past, which may now lead to legal proceedings between the Calico Printers’
Association (Limited) and two British shipping lines. The association supplied
T ui SOme i VG y earsa g 0 Wlth lar g e quantities of goods which were shipped to
Jedda and some of which were cleared by his agents on the guarantee of the latter,
without production of the bills of lading. The guarantee was not redeemed.
Ihe amounts left unpaid by Mr. Ydlibi are said to exceed £20,000.
112a. The California Arabian Standard Oil Company started their drilling
operations at Jebel Dhahran on the 30th April, after some delay due, according
re P? rt ’ to iabour difficulties, but, according to their agent in Jedda to
difficulties m connexion with the water supply, which have now been overcome,
fn 11 v ^{ en ^ on w iP be made later of the most important economic event of
the month, the conclusion of a new agreement regarding the external telegraphic
communications of Saudi Arabia. ° F
114. Twu. announcements of medical interest were made during' April,
viz that a hospital was to be established in Najran and that a doctor was being
sent to Jaui to combat an outbreak of some sort of fever in that area.
11 5. The 24th April was a red-letter day in Jedda. On that evening a
Marconi wireless receiving set began to make itself heard in the “ Jedda Hotel.”
it has attracted admiring audiences, and we can now compete with Tebuk where
according to a report from Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan , the Governor and his entourage have a
set amd have fallen through the ether, for the charms of an Egyptian lady
artiste named l mm Kalthan. The Jedda set is very powerful and the Jedda
Hotel is next door to the British Legation.
II. Frontier Questions and Foreign Relations in Arabia.
116. There was again no news from the Yemen frontier. Nothing further
has been disclosed of what has passed between the Saudi and Yemeni Governments
about the attempt on Ibn Saud’s life in March.
117. Abdul Aziz-al-Idrisi, one of the three important members of the
former ruling family of Asir, whom the Imam surrendered to Ibn Sand last year
died about the 5th April. •
• n j' u Th ^ T J aqi Char g® d’Affaires left by sea on the 7th April, having
received the draft agreement mentioned in paragraph 87 of the last report,
uncertainty seemed to prevail as to the further course of the negotiations. There
was some question of Fuad Bey Hamza going to Bagdad to conduct them, but
he himself intimated later in the month that this mission might be entrusted to
Sheikh i usuf Yasin.
119 The l mm al Qura published on the 12th April the numbers of pilgrims
who had come by overland motor routes. The figures for Iraq were 73 boy scouts
and 311 others. These numbers were even more disappointing than had been
expected, but the boy scouts seem to have been a success, witness an announcement
early in April that the young men of Mecca were preparing a record in book form
of the visit, to include all the speeches and poems to which it gave rise. One
hundred and six pilgrims were stated to have come by car from Koweit.
120. The nationalist delegates from Syria, who were mentioned in para-
graph 92 of the last report, returned early in April to Damascus, again travelling
via Bagdad. It is now clear that these were the same delegates whose alleged
proposals to the King for the creation of an Arab Empire elicited the denial
mentioned in paragraph 90 of the same report. Whatever they were after in