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'File 61/11 V (D 95) Hejaz - Nejd, Miscellaneous' [92r] (200/530)
The record is made up of 1 volume (261 folios). It was created in 12 May 1932-28 Dec 1933. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
I'l"
1
I
REt-OBNCY.
EASTEEJST (Arabia).
i
On t.
November 25, 1932.
CONFIDENTIAL.
> i
Section 1.
f
\
OONFiOE 'iTiAL HguOliOS 1
[E 6D86/165/25] No. 1.
Mr. Hope Gill to Sir John Simon.—(Received November 25.)
(No. 428.)
Jedda, October 19, 1932.
THE manager of the local ' Dutch Bank," a branch of the Handel
Maatschappij of Amsterdam, has imparted the following items of financial
interest:—
2. During the months of May, June, July and August his office was busily
employed in selling to about a dozen of the smaller merchants of Jedda and Mecca,
against, gold, drafts on Bombay, Cairo and London. They amounted, in round
figures, to £150,000 sterling, and were divided about equally between those three
markets. Mr. Jacobs was of the opinion that the drafts on Bombay were
required to finance purchases of rice and other comestibles in time for the coming
pilgrimage season, that those on London were mainly for the purchase of cotton
goods, and that those on Cairo were connected with gambling on the gold
exchange. He made a point of stating that these figures excluded the business
preparations made by the really big local firms, such as Haji Abdullah 'Ali
Ridha's, who conduct their own banking business. Nor, he thought, did they
include savings of the more fortunate Government servants placed abroad for
greater safety.
3. If Mr. Jacobs's figures are approximately correct, as I take them to be,
they show that there was evidently still plenty of money in private hands; at the
same time they betray an implicit faith in the size of the next pilgrimage, which
seems only too likely to have been misplaced. A couple of months ago the bazaar
gossip placed the coming Javanese pilgrimage with confidence at 40,000. Last
season it was 4,500. Next season, according to the shipping company, which has
reason to know best, it will be 1,500. Stocks are now heavy, and unless other
countries send unsuspected quantities of pilgrims, it will be very difficult to get
rid of the accumulation.
4. Mr. Jacobs was very despondent about Saudi Government finance.
During next month, he said. Government commitments mature to the tune of
£40,000 gold. He will have to handle these debts, but sees no hope of obtaining
payment. On the contrary, he foresees trouble and complications arising from the
fact that the greater portion of them has been discounted and re-discounted in
Europe. This, I understand, to be the case with £15,000 owing to the Standard
Oil Company through Messrs. Sharqieh (Limited), and £10,000 to German firms
represented by M. de Haas, the German consul; these are Mr. Jacobs's figures.
The other £15,000 are owing to the Marconi Company, also through
Messrs. Sharqieh. Apart from these, Mr. Jacobs is aware of £5,000 gold owing to
his own firm, £15,000 to the Shell Company, through Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey
and Co., £25,000 to the Qusaibis, and £30,000 to the Soviets for oil—a
total external indebtedness, according to Mr. Jacobs, of £115,000 gold. To this
figure we can add £10,000 owing to the Government of India, £2,500 to the
Eastern Telegraph Company, and £1,700 to His Majesty's Government—a
minimum grand total of some £125,000 gold.
5. Mr. Jacobs is convinced that there is no money left in the Treasury, the
recent rebellion having cost Ibn Saud at least £40,000, he thinks, and used up
his reserves. The Saudi Government have nevertheless recently scraped together
the following sums for export: £1,500 and £1,300 for an Isotto-Eraschini car
apiece for the King and the Viceroy, and a few hundred pounds to induce
M. van Leeuwen to return from sick leave to his unfinished duties of financial
adviser.
6. I am sending a copy of this despatch to the Department of Overseas
Trade.
I have, &c.
C. G. HOPE GILL.
[ 627 bb—1]
About this item
- Content
The volume consists of letters, telegrams, and memoranda relating to the Hejaz and Najd. Much of the correspondence is from the British Legation in Jeddah, with regular reports on the situation in that region sent to Sir John Simon, the Foreign Secretary in London. The rest of the correspondence is mostly between the Political Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. in Bushire, the Political Agencies in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Muscat, the Colonial Office, and the Government of India.
The main subjects of the volume are:
- the change in name from 'The Kingdom of the Hejaz-Nejd and its Dependencies' to 'The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia';
- the announcement of Ibn Sa'ud's eldest son, Prince Sa'ud, as the heir apparent to the throne;
- the territorial dispute between Yemen and Saudi Arabia after the latter's absorption of the 'Asir region into its kingdom.
A copy of the 23 September 1932 issue of the newspaper Umm al-Qura is contained in the volume (folios 57-58). It features the Royal Order proclaiming the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Other miscellaneous subjects covered in the volume include:
- relations between Italy and Saudi Arabia;
- a dispute between Ibn Sa'ud and his agent in Bahrain, al-Quasaibi [‘Abd al-‘Azīz al-Qusaibi], over a debt the former owes the latter;
- a revolt against Ibn Sa'ud by tribes loyal to ex-King Hussein coming from Sinai;
- a request for a loan made by Ibn Sa'ud to the British Government;
- relations between the Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia;
- relations between the USA and Saudi Arabia, including the visit of a Mr Gallant looking for oil concessions;
- concessions for the building of the railway between Mecca and Jeddah;
- the prospect of Saudi Arabia joining the League of Nations;
- the case of two slave girls seeking refuge at the British Legation in Jeddah.
Other documents of note contained in the volume are:
- a copy of a new customs tariff for Saudi Arabia (folios 122-134)
- a 'Who's Who' of Saudi Arabia, produced by the British Legation in Jeddah and covering all those deemed important to know by the British (folios 183-200);
- an envelope containing the torn-out pages of an article in the International Affairs journal (Vol. 12, No. 4, Jul., 1933, pp 518-534) entitled 'Ibn Sa'ud and the Future of Arabia.'
At the back of the volume (folios 245-251) are internal office notes.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (261 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume is arrranged chronologically.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: The sequence starts on the first folio and continues to the inside back cover. The numbers are written in pencil, circled and located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Note that following f 1 are folios 1A, 1B, 1C, and 1D. The sequence then continues as normal from folio 2. There are two other foliation systems present but both are inconsistent and neither are circled.
- Written in
- English and French in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/R/15/1/568
- Title
- 'File 61/11 V (D 95) Hejaz - Nejd, Miscellaneous'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 1r:1v, 1ar:1ev, 8v:11v, 15r:43v, 45v:56v, 59r:64r, 69v:118v, 120v:127v, 128v:133v, 134v:149v, 151v:161v, 162v:164v, 166r:166v, 168r:171v, 172v:174v, 175v:179v, 181r:201r, 202v:212v, 222r:225r, 226r:243v, 244v:256v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence