Coll 6/9 'Jeddah Reports Jany 1931–' [‎262r] (524/802)

visit Jedda to hold a service for the British community. This problem had
engaged the attention of the Legation for some time in consequence of a
suggestion by the Bishop in Egypt and the Sudan that such a visit should be paid
by a clergyman at Port Said. Sir Andrew Ryan had formed the opinion that
^here need be no objection subject to great discretion as regards the arrangements
and provided that means could be found to obtain a visa for entry into the Hejaz
some time next winter. The matter was precipitated by the receipt at the end of
June of a telegram from the chaplain at Port Sudan offering to come over and
hold a service on the 9th July. As this telegram was sent en clair,
Sir Andrew Ryan felt that there was no alternative but to put a direct question
to Fuad Bey. The latter replied most categorically that no non-Moslem minister
of religion could be admitted for any purpose. Sir Andrew Ryan informed the
chaplain at Port Sudan accordingly through the commissioner there, and
reported the facts to the Foreign Office.
157. The sloop, H.M.S. Hastings, Captain C. S. Sandford, O.B.E., R.N.,
arrived from Port Sudan on the 6th July and left again for Suez on the 9th.
During the visit the Jedda cricket team regained the ashes.
158. The British community in Jedda w^ere grieved to learn during the
month that M. van Leeuwen, the Dutch financial adviser to the Saudi Government,
who recently left this country on retirement for reasons of ill-health, died at
Amsterdam on the 7th July.
159. Messrs. Tallents and Anderson, two members of the firm which
manages the Orient Line, paid a flying visit to Jedda on the 9th July on the
steamship Talodi.
160. A new doctor, whose name is given as George, arrived during the
month from Russia, and is attached to the Soviet Legation in the room of
M. Morsen, the dentist, who recently left, it is said, for the Yemen. Dr. George
is accompanied by his wife.
161. The Frenchwoman (reference paragraph 127 of last report) acquitted
of the charge of poisoning her Arab husband left Jedda by the steamship Taif
on the 5th July. Her departure from the landing-stage in the French consulate
launch did not pass unnoticed—she was a pathetic figure simply dressed in her
widow’s weeds. It is learned that this “femme fatale,” still known to the
Levantine press as Mme. d'Andhurin, has since acquired another husband.
162. Salvage work has been proceeding for some time on the French Fabre
Line steamship Asia, the melancholy wreck lying on the reefs in the roads of
Jedda. So far a little over 300 tons of coal of an inferior quality has been
recovered, and will, it is supposed, be the property of the Saudi Government, as
any claim to the wreck by those originally interested has been abandoned long ago.
163. A curious case, so far the first of its kind, arose during the month when
two girls, aged 16 and 13, took refuge in the Legation declaring themselves to be
slaves. The family from which they had fled claimed them through the local
authorities as daughters of the family who had never been slaves. The Legation
refused to hand the girls over without an enquiry, which, however, when held
(without the collaboration of the Saudi authorities), proved the self-styled slave-
girls to be imposters and the relatives to be in the right in demanding them back
as mere naughty and recalcitrant runaways.
164. The position in regard to the manumission of slaves in July was as
follows :—
On hand at beginning of month : One male.
Took refuge in July : None.
Manumitted in July and repatriated : One male.
Locally manumitted : None.
On hand at end of month : None.
It has not been possible without fresh evidence to proceed further with the case
of the two children of the man in Kamaran (reference paragraph 133 of last
report), as the Saudi Government inform the Legation that the daughter is now
married and free, whilst the son, who was free, has been resold into slavery.