Coll 6/9 'Jeddah Reports Jany 1931–' [‎326r] (652/802)

Wireless System.
16. None of the monthly instalments of £1,000 have been paid to the
Marconi Company since last August. It is understood that they have now been
relegated to item 5 of the “budget,” entitled indebtedness, payable if and when
funds admit. Meanwhile, the work of installation proceeded slowly.
Mr. Roucicault is believed to have completed the ^-kilowatt station at Qaf or
Qaryat-al-Milh, the “ salt-villages ” in the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Sirhan. Kurdy Bev has started
work on the main 6-kilowatt station at Mecca.
Communications.
17. The projected motor-route to connect Medina with Iraq has made no
material progress. It is still in the stage of a preliminary exchange of views as
to terms, dues payable, passport and quarantine controls, &c., between the Hejazi
and Iraqi Governments. The former's proposals are greedy, and not very
practical, and have not been well received
Legislation.
18. A voluminous commercial code at length completed piecemeal
publication in the “ Umm-al-Qura ’ in February. All that is now lacking in this
respect is a competent court and bar ; the existing Majlis-at-Tujjar or Tribunal
of Merchants is most incompetent.
19. Instructions governing the boarding of ships lying in Jedda harbour
were issued in January. They were brought officially to the notice of the foreign
missions in February. These were asKed to supply lists of the names of their
staffs, so that embarkation permits might be issued to them. This appeared to
His Majesty’s Charge d'Affaires to infringe diplomatic immunity, and therefore
meet to be resisted, in that momentary forgetfulness to carry the permit might
seriously interfere with the performance of a duty to visit an incoming or
departing vessel. He therefore expressed regret to the Hejazi Government that
he could not instruct the Legation staff to carry this type of permit, but he
communicated the required lists, containing thirty-three names, and asked that
they might he made known to the control officials posted on the quay. There the
matter has been allowed to rest, and no cases of interference have been
experienced since a few unsuccessful attempts were made in January to hold up
the Indian vice-consul when visiting pilgrim ships.
20. No other legislation of importance was enacted during the period under
review.
Wakfs.
21. At the beginning of the year a zealous body was formed in Mecca, which
called itself the “ A.wqaf-al-Harameyn Claims Association,” having the object
of “ claiming through legitimate channels that which is due to the people of the
two Holy Sanctuaries, Mecca and Medina, in the way of donations and Awqaf
in various countries.” A committee of ten has been formed under the presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent.
of Sheikh Abdullah-ash-Sheybi. son of Sheikh Abdul Qadir-ash-Sheybi,
hereditary Keeper of the Keys of the Kaba, whose family has battened more
fatlv on the faithful than have most Meccawis, and is now peerless.
The Rub-aTKhali.
22. The Empty Quarter has again been crossed by an Englishman, this
time under the auspices of Ibn Saud, who, according to the Umm-al-Qura
appears to regard that desert also as a part of his dominions. Mr. Philby set
out from Hufuf on the 6th January, and reached Mecca on the 5th April.
Ibn Saud's Amir of Hasa provided him with thirty-two of the best Omaniya
camels and eighteen Bedouin, sectional sheikhs of the Ajman and Murra tribes,
as companions and guides. Their route was as follows : Hufuf, Salwa, on the
coast between Qatar and Hasa, the Jabrin oasis, Maqainama Well (22° 15' N.,
49° 10' E.), Bir Fadhil (22° 15' N., 50° 20' E.), Farajja (21° 35' N., 50° 45' E.),
10 miles to the west of which Mr. Philby thinks he found the Bedouin traditional
site of the ancient city of Ubar (which really was in the Yemeni highlands),
Naifa (19° 50' N., 51° E.), and Shanna (19° N., 51° 05' E.).