Coll 6/67(4) 'Boundaries of South Eastern Arabia and Qatar.' [‎82r] (163/843)

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
EASTEKN (Arabia).
April 5, 1937.
CONFIDENTIAL.
Section 1.
[E 1869/115/25]
Copy No.
(No
Sir,
Ibn Saud and its effect upon policy.
2. in the recent monthly reports sent in from this post reference has been
made to the determined efforts displayed by the Saudi authorities to collect money
otherwise than by taxation, not only from their own subjects, but also from
pilgrims. I he Aviation Society has published regularly in the press during the
last few weeks an appeal to pilgrims urging them to subscribe for the defence of
their fatherland, the Holy Land of the Hejaz. Then there is the Piastre Scheme,
whose main object seems to be the encouragement of local industries. The
committee in charge of this project have gone so far as to publish in the Saut-al-
newspaper an appeal to Moslems written in ill-spelt English, and to
advertise small boxes of dates for pilgrims to take home as “ A Present from
Medina.” Other objects for which subscriptions are invited are the sacred well
of Zamzam, the Waziriya water scheme for Jedda, the First Aid Society, the
Charitable Society, the Asylum for Orphans and the Aged, and so on. The
pilgrim guides are required to press these schemes upon the attention of their
pilgrims, and for the Aviation Society the guides are under moral compulsion to
buy books of 1 riyal tickets proportioned to the number and supposed wealth of
their pilgrims, and are left to pass them on to the pilgrims if they can, or to bear
the loss themselves. Pilgrims have been subjected to pressure on behalf of these
various schemes, but no complaints have been received from British pilgrims. It
is accepted that a pilgrim should distribute what he can in charity while he is in
the Hejaz, and if there were no societies appealing for his money, it might go to
individual beneficiaries or be extorted under various pretexts by the guides.
3. It is easy to deride the thirst for money which underlies these appeals,
and the latest Jedda report contrasts the requests for charity with Ibn Sand’s
alleged expenditure of over £600 for walnuts and pistachio nuts for his last
hunting trip. But it is impossible not to feel some sympathy for him. His
personal expenditure is doubtless wasteful in some ways, and it seems hard on a
poor country to have to support a royal family, which includes twenty-five princes
and a corresponding number of princesses and queens, but there is no reason to
think that any economy that would be compatible with the King’s position and
oriental methods of accountancy would make a great difference to the budget.
4. The word “ budget ” is only used by convention, for it is probable that
the Saudi budget exists largely in the head of the able Nejdi, who is Ibn Sand’s
Minister of Finance. Income is irregular and incalculable, and expenditure
spasmodic. If the King wants money suddenly for some purpose the Minister
of Finance must produce it somehow, and there are demands from the Amirs Saud
and Faisal also to be met, and the simplest way to meet essential expenditure is
to leave for some future time the payment for services rendered or goods supplied.
All Saudi officials, except those who are in position to look after themselves, are
permanently in arrears with their pay for periods extending at times to half a
year. Many foreign chauffeurs, employed for the State cars, have been glad to
recover, before leaving, a third or a quarter of arrears of pay extending back
sometimes for two or three years. The Soviet Legation 'are still trying,
apparently with no hope of success, to recover payment for oil products to the
value of about £30.000, which they supplied to the Saudi Government in 1930.
A Polish firm supplied a considerable quantity of arms to the Saudi Government
in 1930, and it is believed that the efforts they made to recover the second half of
the price were not successful. The difficulties which have beset our attempt to
recover the cost of arms supplied by the Government of India at the time of the
r981 e—11