'File 61/13 I (D 133) Wahabis and Pilgrimage to Hedjaz' [‎81r] (173/431)

THIS DOCUMENT 18 THE PROPERTY O F HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT
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EASTERN ( A rabia ). ^ , November 26, 1931.
CONFIDENTIAL. , ^ ^ j -t, v-
[E 5862/100/25] No _ j
Sir A. Ryaoi to Sir John Simon.
. Foreign Office, November 26, 1931.
IjS accordance with arrangements made with your Department, I have the
honour to submit herewith a general report on the pilgrimage to the Holy Places
of the Hejaz in 1931. I have compiled this report at home from the series of
special reports drawn up by the various pilgrimage officers attached to His
Majesty s Legation at Jedda, which Mr. Hope Gill, who had not himself been in
Jedda during the pilgrimage season, thought it better to send home as they stood,
with annotations only, in his despatch to your predecessor. No. 373, of the
29th September. Although I have confined myself in the main to editing the
separate reports freely condensing them where necessary, I have included certain
additions and comments suggested by my own study of pilgrimage matters during
the past twelve months.
2. I have preserved, as far as possible the form of the Pilgrimage Report for
1930. I propose to consider in due course the best means of standardising to some
extent the form of these annual reports which, though always full of useful
matter in the past, have not perhaps been drawn up in the most convenient manner
for comparison from year to year.
3. In his above-mentioned despatch, His Majesty's Charge d'Affaires paid
well-merited tributes to the work done in 1931 by the various pilgrimage officers
and by Dr. Abdul Hamid, the head of the medical section. In endorsing these
tributes, I need add nothing to what has on this and previous occasions been said
of the constant devotion to the interests of Indian pilgrims shown by the British
Indian vice-consul and Dr. Abdul Hamid, who sustain the heaviest burden. The
Malay pilgrimage officer, Haji Abdul Mejid, brings to his task great knowledge
of his countrymen and their special requirements and continues to render very
valuable services. I would draw your special attention to the work of Captain
B. W. Seager, who deals with the less highly organised sections of the pilgrimage
and has to handle a great variety of pilgrims of different races, more especially
those from British dependencies in Africa. I have been greatly impressed by
the ability and sympathy with which he watches over the interests of pilgrims of
this poorer and sometimes very helpless class. He was, moreover, of the greatest
assistance to me in 1931 in discussing with the authorities concerned particular
questions affecting African pilgrims and those from the Aden Protectorate,
during the visits paid to Jedda in the spring by the Commissioner at Port Sudan
and the Protectorate Secretary at Aden.
4. I would suggest that copies of the enclosed report should be circulated
through the proper channels to India, Bagdad, Jerusalem and the usual other
posts under the Colonial Office.
I have, &c.
ANDREW RYAN.
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Enclosure in No. 1.
Report on the Pilgrimage of 1931 (A.H. 1349).
Prefatory Note. —Short explanations of a certain number of terms which occur
frequently in connexion with the pilgrimage are given in Appendix A to the
report. This list will be revised and amplified on a convenient future
occasion.
(1) Introductory and General.
THE political situation in the Hejaz and Nejd underwent a marked
deterioration during the first nine months of 1931. This did not manifest itself
early enough to affect of itself the pilgrimage. The great decline in the number
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