'File 61/13 I (D 133) Wahabis and Pilgrimage to Hedjaz' [‎117r] (245/431)

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of thirteen persons. "All the while," 1 says Khan Bahadur Ihsanullah, "they
were quarrelling and quibbling with each other and arriving at different
calculations, sometimes closing the office and going away to return a little later."
The pilgrims were amused but fatigued. Koshan has come to be thing of
terror. "The word, to quote the vice-consul again, "is now synonymous with
foreboding evils and dangers for the pilgrims, and Khan Bahadur Lieutenant-
Colonel Ziauddin (the officer concerned in the incident described) depicted it to be
a word meant to frighten the urchins not to commit any mischief."
94. On the 25th March His Majesty's Charge d'Affaires brought to the
official notice of the Hejazi Government difficulties experienced by pilgrims,
including those under heads (b) and (d) above. It was understood that these
representations had impressed the King and the Director-General of Finance.
On the 13th April an official communique was published stating that, in
■consequence of complaints by pilgrims regarding delay due to the use of defective
ears and lack of spare parts, mutawwifs and motor owners had been warned that
only serviceable cars, certified as such by the proper authorities, must be used.
The communique declared that owners causing delay by negligence in this respect
: or by not providing necessary spare parts would be severely punished, and that
mutawwifs failing to report such delays would be punished as accomplices. No
reply was returned to Mr. Hope Gill's note, but on the 2nd August the Acting
Minister for Foreign Affairs informed Sir Andrew Ryan, in reply to a formal
! l reminder, that the cases were still under consideration and promised to supply
£ information as to the eventual result.
95. When the Indian vice-consul saw the King under the auspices of
»■ Ismail Ghuznavi on the 7th May, 1932, His Majesty said that his attention had
been drawn to complaints regarding the motor transport service, but that no one
e ; bad suggested any effective means of improving it. Khan Bahadur Ihsanullah
i?. thereupon put forward a series of suggestions as to how conditions might, in his
t opinion, be ameliorated. He said that pilgrims were unduly detained at Jedda
on their way to Medina for an inspection of vehicles conveying them, which had
no material value. This system of inspection should be abolished, and the
transport companies should be held responsible for their respective vehicles. The
official at the starting-point, as well as at the intermediate stations, should duly
record the time of the arrival and departure of the vehicles. There should be a
supervising body at the destination, who, on the arrival of the vehicles, would
determine whether the driver had plied them at the normal speed, which should
be fixed by the Government, and in case of any infraction the delinquent should
be punished. This would put a check on irresponsible drivers, who sometimes
capsize the vehicles by rash driving and cause serious injuries to pilgrims.
Efforts should also be made to instal telephone stations on the Medina road, and
the officials at each post should be provided with benzine, water, oil, &c., to be
supplied free to any vehicles running short against a receipt by the driver, the
amount shown in which should subsequently be recovered from the companies
concerned. There should be on the Medina road at least four large stations
equipped with all the necessary spare parts for vehicles and served by an engineer
with a car at his disposal. On receipt of information that any vehicle had been
incapacitated on the road, the engineer should at once proceed to the spot and
carry out the necessary repairs, the cost of which would be subsequently recovered
from the companies. The existing regulation, which requires the companies to
provide at their expense one spare car to accompany each caravan of six cais,
should be abolished. The adoption of the suggestions put forward would render
this unnecessary, and the cost of maintaining the engineers could all the moie
justly be made a charge on the companies, recoverable by the IS aqaba at the end
of each season. Spare parts, benzine, &c., supplied on the road should be cnaige
for at double the market rate in order to stimulate the sense of responsibility oi
the motor companies and make them more careful to equip their vehicles proper y.
Should an engineer regard any vehicle on the road as unfit for traffic, he shou c
be authorised to replace it by another, and the company should be liable to a ne
for providing such a car for the conveyance of pilgrims. Should the establish
ment of telephone stations on the Medina road be not considered feasible a
practical alternative would be to establish twenty-four pilgrim stations on the
Medina road and attach a coffee shop to each, which should cater for all the
requirements of pilgrims. The Government should also appom an engmee
inspect once a year all vehicles engaged in the pilgrimage traffic, and the company