Coll 6/19 'Arabia: (Saudi Arabia) Hejaz-Nejd Annual Report.' [‎220r] (440/540)

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was stated to be not necessarily complete. In the autumn of 1931 the Ilejazi
Government produced a printed collection of treaties, which did great credit to
its compiler, Fuad Bey Hamza, but was also incomplete and occasionally
inaccurate in minor respects. Appendix I to the present report gives a revised
list derived from these two and certain other sources. The unusual circumstances
in which the report has been compiled have made it impossible to ensure absolute
completeness and accuracy at all points, but the list as now presented may be
taken to contain everything having any important bearing on the international
situation of Hejaz-Nejd at the end of 1931.
HI.— Internal Affairs.
(1) General Situation.
113. Although the internal situation in Hejaz-Nejd suffered an undoubted
deterioration in 1931, there was no resistance to Ibn Baud’s authority (except
perhaps in Asir, which has already been dealt with) of such importance as 1°
become publicly known. There were, indeed, not infrequent rumours of trouble
in Nejd ”; reports in January of disaffection among the Ajman tribe and a little
later of alleged restiveness on the part of Ibn Musaad, the Governor of Hail, who
is related to the King; constant but ill-informed anxiety regarding the situation
in the country towards the Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan frontier; tales of the escape irom Hai
of members of the Rashid family and of the prospect of a Shammar revolt, and
so forth. Most of these reports may be dismissed as unsubstantiated gossip,
indicative at most of a certain malaise, not so much in the country as a whole
as in places like Mecca and Jedda, which serve as sounding-boards for rumour.
There is no serious evidence that the King has lost his grip on Nejd He had to
make some show of concession to the extremist views of the uleina there, as will
be seen presently. He may be unable to count on the continued loyalty of t e
Shammar or the tribes which revolted in 1929, but he probably keeps a tight ho d
on the remnants of the Rashid family and other possible leaders of rebellion
The best known of the latter, Feisal-ad-Dawish, died at Riadh in October o
November, almost certainly from natural causes, helped perhaps by lo g
confinement.
114 The evolution of the situation in the Hejaz may best be indicated by
relating' summarily a sequence of particular events. The anniversary of the
K ng’s accession was celebrated at Mecca and Jedda on the 8th and 9th January,
with the same pomp as in the previous year, a fact which at the time seemed to
indicate that Ibn S p aud was strong enough to defy extreme religious opmion m
Neid but which had a later repercussion m a contrary sense The King hi
returned from Riadh to Mecca on the 20th January. On the. second day of the
Bayram Festival in February he created a sensation by not only allowuigMs
Neidi soldiers to execute a war dance, but himself joining n . 7
later on the 25th February, he came to Jedda, timing his visit so as to meet t c
rieh old American Mr C. R. Crane, who has taken a lifelong interest sometimes
tinned wit^Te^olutionary sympathies, in the affairs of the East, and had on this
tinged witnrevouLioiiay^F ^ Atlantic to make the acquaintance of
Thn a W° The latter showered attentions on his visitor, possibly hoping (though
if the hope were entertained it was unfulfilled) for revivifying dollars from the
it w e ie e organised a great review, the principal
feature o thi'ch^ a^ioter Nejdl dance,'ll! which tie Princes took part as in
teature oi w himself. This stimulated various sections of the
Mecca, u t j^ a to s how what they themselves could do in the dancing line.
For U ^veral°da\^ gatherings Mkiyal ^subjects went in procession through the
greets To dance lutside thf King's’ palace. Jedda presented almost the joyous
aspect of a city in the primrose stage of revolution.
iik Tinnfi mr was called off after about a week. Some political
firsfday of the festival. The Nejdis had then expressed a wish to show then