Coll 6/9 'Jeddah Reports Jany 1931–' [‎113v] (227/802)

some diplomatic representatives. There were nearly forty guests and a good time
was had by all, despite the absence of the British Legation party owing to
mourning.
81. The senior princes returned to Mecca after the Philby party, but on the
31st March the King, his ladies and several of his younger sons were still in Jedda
for the sea breezes, which blew abominably from the north on that day afte^pt
blowing even more disagreeably from the south during the preceding days. It
says much for Ibn Baud’s kindness as a husband and father that he has stood the
climate for longer than he has done for several years.
82. Fuad Bey Hamza was in Jedda from the 14th to 18th March and from
the 23rd March to the end of the month. He appears to be au mieux with the
French and spent the night of the 15th March aboard the French steamship
Sinaia. On the 28th March he installed the Jedda branch of the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs in the former Persian Legation, a roomier house than its previous
squalid habitation, but in a very inconvenient position in the south of the town.
Fuad Bey has had two or three recurrences of the liver or heart complaint from
which he has long suffered. He was to leave for Syria in April and to go on to
Europe for a cure, perhaps at Karlsbad, though he also thinks of Harrogate. His
programme was altered early in April to include an important visit to Cairo to
negotiate the settlement of all outstanding questions.
83. Important aerial developments occurred during the month. On the
29th February an aeroplane arrived from Egypt to take the Princess Khadija
Halim (paragraph 75 of the last report) back after the pilgrimage. She left
Jedda on or about the 7th for Medina. Three smaller aeroplanes arrived from
Egypt on the 1 st March, the survivors of a party of four which had left Cairo
with two cadets of the Egyptian Royal Family and some others. One machine,
and it is thought one cadet, got no further than Wejh or Yanbu. Thus the
pilgrimage by air is an accomplished fact, but for Egyptians the gilt is a little
taken off the gingerbread owing to the enforcement of quarantine at Tor, which
makes the return journey nearly, if not quite, as long as that by sea.
84. The crowning glory, perhaps, was the arrival on the 25th March, five
days behind the advertised date, for some unknown reason, of the aeroplane
presented by the French Government to Ibn Saud (see paragraph 64 of the last
report and paragraph 79 above). The machine is a Caudron-Renault Pelican
four-seater, apparently an ambulance refitted for Royal use.
85. The student aviators sent to Italy last year left Naples on the 7th March
and were expected here before the end of March, but their return via Massawa
was delayed and they did not actually arrive until the 4th April. It is more than
ever the'fashion in the press to acclaim these lads as “eagles.” Mr. Philby
suggests that the word used more properly means “ vultures,” but the balance of
evidence is that the local journalists know their own language even better than
Mr. Philby.
86 . The Advisory Legislative Council completed another session on the
23rd March and was reconstituted for a further period as from the 24th March,
the beginning of the Moslem year. The King opened the new session on the
following day and foreshadowed legislation for the creation of an assembly of
representatives from every district in the kingdom, to meet annually at
pilgrimage time, with a view to strengthening the relations between the people
and the Government. This recalls the experiment of June 1931 (paragraph 19 of
the report for May-June of that year) when the King convened a council of
representatives of the Hejaz towns. That also was to be held annually, but this
council was somewhat censorious and the experiment was not repeated.
87. The most interesting new appointment to the Legislative Council was
that of Abdur-Rauf Sabban, who was one of the most active conspirators abroad
some years ago, but who made his peace with the King last year after the
proclamation of the “ amnesty ” of January 1935. Two other repentant
ex-conspirators of note were rewarded at the same time : Tahir-ad-Dabbagh with
the post of Director of Education, and Muhammad Sadiq with that of Assistant
Director of Awkaf.
88 . Fiscal measures of considerable importance were announced in the press
on the 27th March, in the almost casual manner in which so much Saudi legisla
tion is promulgated. Three notices appeared under a general heading stating that
they had been sanctioned by high decree. One imposed a licence system for the
importation of tea and sugar, which aimed apparently at assigning quotas to