Coll 6/9 'Jeddah Reports Jany 1931–' [‎362v] (725/802)

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the Eastern Telegraph Company continued to mount steadily since the last settle
ment up to the end of April, and was something over £2,000 at the end of
August. As for the £30,000 owed to the Government of India for arms supplied
to Ibn Saud to crush the Nejd rebellion of 1929, the Hejazi Government’s appeal
ad misericordiam was perforce allowed, and they were informed in July that the
Government of India had no alternative but to agree to still further postpone^-
payment. The hope was expressed that Ibn Saud would honour his pledge noV 1
later than the 5th March, 1932. A reply expressing the King’s thanks, but
nothing more, was received in August.
Economic.
12. Mr. Twitchell’s report on the minerals of the Hejaz coastal area
appeared in the “ Umm-al-Qura ” during July and August, whence it was
retranslated back into English and sent home for such expert study as it might
merit. To the layman it was disappointing. Some ancient gold workings at
A1 Qaryat and some surface asphalt up and down the coast near Wejh appeared
to be the only indications of mineral wealth of any possible value. More will be
known when Mr. Twitchell returns, as is expected, in October with six American
prospectors. This factor at least would seem to show that there was more in his
report or his further discoveries than was published. The Swedish geological
mission mentioned in the May-June report (paragraph 9) appears to have been
side-tracked.
13. As a result of Mr. Twitchell’s report and supposed high optimism, the
exploitation of minerals began to assume attractive features in the eyes of the
local inhabitants as a rich alternative to the exploitation of pilgrims.
Marconi Wireless Installation.
14. The Hejazi Government failed to pay the July and August instalments.
There was also a series of delays in getting on with the work of installation. Two
mobile sets followed Ibn Saud to Riadh at the end of July, accompanied by
Mr. Philby and the Egyptian engineer, and there they were used to maintain
communication with the Hejaz, but no serious attempt was made to prepare the
groundwork for the big Riadh station and all the material continued to lie in
Jedda. As for the stations-to-be in Northern Hejaz and at Jauf, the Marconi
expert, Mr. Boucicault, was unable to leave Jedda for Wejh until the
2nd August, and at the end of the month he was still at Wejh, unable to proceed
to Tabuk, the site of the first station, for lack of benzine for his convoy.
Legislation.
15. The texts of measures governing the Shari’a courts, the Hejazi Civil
Service, and commerce and commercial litigation were published during July and
August.
Religious Intolerance.
16. July saw the reconstitution in Mecca of the dreaded Wahhabi
Committee of Virtue. The easy-going Hejazis were beaten up to their five-a-day
prayers by Nejdi soldiery placed at the committee’s disposal. In the words of
an eye-witness, the Indian vice-consul, “ these incarnations of the devil wildly
run through the public thoroughfares and enter the lanes and by-lanes in pursuit
of the defaulters who might have taken shelter there, and on discovery fall upon
them with all their might and beat them mercilessly. There is no distinction
between good and bad, rich or poor, young or old. They lay them down on the
public road and flog them indiscriminately.” There appears to be no escape for
the Meccawis from these indignities, for whereas in the past offenders against
the puritan Wahhabi code of prayerfulness and abstinence from tobacco were
given a chance to appear before a body of notables, among whom were citizens
who had a natural inclination to leniency towards their fellow-citizens in crime,
all are now dealt with summarily by the Nejdis, who are distributed in gangs of
twenty throughout the thirteen quarters of Mecca. It is expected that this
treatment will ease off before pilgrims from other lands begin to arrive.