Coll 6/9 'Jeddah Reports Jany 1931–' [‎183r] (366/802)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
EASTERN (Arabia).
CONFIDENTIAL.
[E 557/557/25]
I / C CT
January 25, 1935.
1955 f
Section 1.
No. 1.
Sir A. Ryan to Sir John Simon.—[Received January 25.)
(No 1. Confidential.) T „ r t 1QQ x
gj r Jedda, January 1, 1935.
I HAVE the honour to submit herewith the Jedda report for December 1934.
2. Copies have been distributed as in the list appended to the report tor
January. T . D
J I have, &c.
ANDREW RYAN.
Enclosure in No. 1.
Jedda Report for December 1934.
I .—Internal Affairs.
295. Ibn Saud remained at Riyadh throughout the month. The Amir
Feisal who was also there at its outset, stayed on until the 25th December, when
he left for the Hejaz, getting back to Mecca on the 29th December. luad Bey
Hamza, who, as stated in paragraph 267 of the last report, returned from leave
on the 2nd December, visited Jedda on the 7th December, and had a conversation
with His Majesty’s Charge d’Affaires, but three or four days later he proceeded
from Mecca to Riyadh, where he remained in attendance on the King up to the
end of the month. . . . , T .
296. The absence of these high personages at Riyadh reduced the Ministry
for Foreign Affairs to a shadow and deprived the foreign representatives in
Jedda of any opportunity of dealing with affairs requiring personal intercourse.
The stillness of the diplomatic air was intensified by the fact that the fasting
month of Ramadan, always a period of slackness, began on the 6th December.
297. The assemblage at Riyadh was to be reinforced about the end of the
month by the arrival of the Saudi Minister in London, who left England on the
3rd December and arrived in Egypt on the 13th December. He left Cairo,
apparently by air, on the 18th December, and when last heard of had got to
Bagdad. , , . ^ .
298. There was no news of any further development m the leima area
(paragraph 271 of the last report), or of any important happening towards the
Yemen border. It was freely rumoured in Jedda, however, that a grave situation
had arisen in the Royal circle at Riyadh, with a reflex in the form of tribal
unrest in the central area.
299. These reports were almost certainly much exaggerated and are not
worth reproducing in detail. Their central features were that the xAmir Feisal
was supposed to be an unwilling guest, detained in Nejd for political reasons,
and that an acute quarrel had occurred between the King and his brother
Muhammad who was said at one moment to have been put to death. There were
many variants on the current stories, and other princes were named as rebels or
potential rebels. So far as the Amir Feisal is concerned, he left Riyadh, as
already stated, on the 25th December, but the rumourists, not to be defeated,
then put it about that he had tarried at Shaqra, presumably to deal with the
tribal unrest.
300. Mr. Philby’s reaction to the rumours was that no importance need
be attached to tales of dissension in the Royal Family, but that all the bigwigs
at Riyadh were “ in a great muddle,” a state of affairs which he attributes to
[306 bb—1] B