Coll 6/9 'Jeddah Reports Jany 1931–' [‎60r] (120/802)

D
at all the festivities, all the elements of a secret service novel are present.
However, His Majesty’s Minister was able to inform the Italian Minister that
one of the last things Mr. Rendel had done in London was to have an interview
with M. Crolla, the Italian Charge d'Affaires, in which both parties confirmed
their adherence to the Rome Understanding of 1927 about the Red Sea Coast
of Arabia, &c.
128. Signor Luigi Silitti (paragraph 84) arrived on the 10 th March to take
up his appointment as Italian Minister at Jedda, presented his credentials to
Ibn Saud on the 13th and was entertained at dinner by Sheikh Yusuf Yasin the
following day. It appears that he has never seen Sydney, where he had only just
been appointed when the post at Jedda fell vacant. He spent many years in
consular posts in the United States. Signor Silitti seemed disappointed with
his first call on Ibn Saud. He informed His Majesty’s Minister that he found
Ibn Saud very guarded, and concluded that he was a very clever fellow, who
would never give himself away.
129. The press made no further references to the Eritrean (? Ethiopian)
pilgrims mentioned in paragraph 85. A private report, however, says that at
the meeting at Muna a Somali got up and made a speech in favour of Italy and
against the Negus. Ibn Saud told His Majesty’s Minister that the Italians tried
hard, but without success, to induce him to say something in favour of their
pro-Moslem policy. Reports from Medina state that a Moslem employee of the
Italian Legation went there with the Italian pilgrims and hired several houses,
where they were provided with free lodging, light and water. Among the
pilgrims, it is stated, were some forty Somali non-commissioned officers and
men in the Italian forces, and they were said to have been told that the Italian
Government were going to send a similar party every year. The Italians are
said to be intending to buy a house, or houses, at Medina for their pilgrims.
130. As a contrast to the subsidised Italian pilgrims, hundreds of destitutes
from Italian Somaliland are drifting about the streets of Jedda waiting for
repatriation. Members of the staff of the Italian Legation state that they
constitute a serious problem, as it is extremely difficult to obtain transport for
them. One of them, in reply to a question, said that it was not in the power of
the Italian Government just to order a shipping company to send a ship for the
destitutes; the companies required payment on a high scale. Meanwhile, the
Italian Legation have been forced to give relief to the destitutes—at the rate of
a dollar a head a day.
131. It seems that the Italian vice-consul recently revived the proposal to
build a hospital here. He told the Director of Public Health that the Italian
Government would like to build a hospital for the Saudi Government, and
described the plan. And then, the Director enquired, the hospital would be
handed over to the Saudi authorities to run ? M. Bellini asked whether it would
not be a good thing to have an Italian doctor in charge, but the Director said
that they could have nothing to do with such a scheme. Not long afterwards, the
Royal Palace at Mecca was startled to hear a broadcast from Bari stating that
Ibn Saud had agreed to build a hospital at Mecca for Italian subjects.
132. The Italian journalist, “ Aponte,” who was in Jedda recently (para
graph 393 of 1936), has published in the Corriere della Sera an article containing
a slightly anti-British paragraph which is attributed to Euad Bey by name and
an untruthful and rather more anti-British paragraph based on information,
some of which almost certainly came from Fuad Bey. This is not the first time
that Fuad Bey has done on his own account some political propaganda in the
press that his master might not approve.
133. M. Palsay, the Turkish Charge d’Affaires, has been finding amusement
in a report written by one of his predecessors, Lutfalla Bey, who some years ago
paid the first officiaf Turkish visit to the Yemen since the war. Lutfalla Bey
relates that, when he was waiting at Massawa for a steamer to take him to
Hudaida, an Italian official from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Rome who
happened to be there attached himself to him, and eventually, without giving any
reason for his journey, went to Hudaida with him in the same ship and to Sana
in the same car, and refused to be shaken off throughout the visit.
134. The pilgrims from Spanish Morocco were the subject of two references
in the Umm-al-Qura. One reports that they were headed by a delegation which
included the Minister of Justice of the zone and brought with it a letter to
Ibn Saud from the Khalifa, presents for the King, decorations for the King,