Coll 6/9 'Jeddah Reports Jany 1931–' [‎332r] (664/802)

17
Military Expenditure.
82. Table III as communicated to the Disarmament Conference compares
thus with the current “budget” as annexed to this report: —
Table III.
Item—
Police and coastguards...
Frontier guards ...
Air force
Other categories ...
Material and ammunition
Transport and communica
tions
Total ...
Budget.”
£ gold.
Item—
£ gold.
50,551
Public security
54,952
35,000
Frontier forces
35,000
12,000
Hejazi share in Defence
633,950
Departments
200,000
98,450
Communications and trans-
ft*' • > Y :
100,000
port
100,000
930,151
Total ...
389,952
Difference roughly = £540,000
Apart from possible clerical and mathematical errors (such as 633,950 for 63,395),
which are hardly ever lacking from important Hejaz-Nejd calculations and
enactments, the difference of over half-a-million pounds may probably be
explained by the fact that the “budget ” is solely Hejazi, although this is not
expressly stated. If confronted with these figures, Ibn Saud would no doubt
readily aver that Neid pays the difference as senior military partner in the dual
kingdom. This might be true, but again it might not. There is no means of
telling. This at least can be said, that the bulky figure of “£633,950—Other
categories ” deserves to be regarded with grave suspicion.
Northern Hejaz and Frontier.
83. The northern Amirates continued in a bad way, lacking pay and food
for the men and petrol and spare parts for the cars. The Amir of Tabuk,
however, was able to raid and loot the Beni Atiya in February, as described in
paragraph 36, an operation which relieved his garrison’s distress.
84. According to 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 information, Hejazi military and police
forces in March were distributed as follows :—
Military.
Police.
Camel
Corps.
Guns.
Military
Cars.
Location.
Officers.
Men.
Officers.
Men.
Field
Guns.
Machine
Guns.
Mecca
3
60
8
145
300
6
6
12
Taif
1
19
1
35
85
1
1
5
J edda
4
50
9
119
75
8
9
7
Medina
1
34
7
114
125
4
3
10
Yanbu’ .. .. ..
1
10
2
18
25
1
1
1
Wejh
1
10
1
15
42
1
1
2
Tabuk
2
24
1
15
40
1
6
Skaka
# #
1
14
100
10
Qaf (under Ibn Zeyd, Tribal
Control Officer) .. •
• •
50
50
..
..
6
Totals ..
13
207
30
525
842
22
21
59
Notes.
(i) “ Camel Corps ” includes the Governor’s bodyguard.
(ii) “Cars” are frequently changing locations and the majority! are now unserviceable awaiting
spares. Some have machine guns.
(iii) Local Governors can raise irregular forces at short notice.
(iv) This list will be amended and added to when reliable reports are received.
East (Nejd).
85. There is nothing definite to report.
[7003]