File 1707/1924 ‘Arabia:- Jeddah Situation Reports. (1924-1930)’ [‎414v] (833/898)

g;oes straight to one of the shipping agencies, and on the strength of his passport, which
| hears a stamp saving that he has made a deposit of 60 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. m India, gets a passage
to Bombay or Karachi. The only Indian pilgrims who have to come to this agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. (other
than the few who have some complaint to make) are those who have lost their passports,
and these are less numerous than our previous experience of Indian passports had led
us to fear. At a rough guess, and exclusive of those who travelled by the steame.
I which was burnt—the steamship “ Frangestan ”—only about 1 per cent, of pilgrims
have lost their passports. Where the name and details, given by such a pilgrim
correspond with those in the lists sent us from India, and his dialect supports his tale,
he is cdven an emergency pass which is good for a passage provided that no passage
has already been granted in virtue of the passport which the pilgnm claims to have
lost. Where the name cannot be found on the lists, the applicant is refused.an
emero-encv pass and is advised to buy a ticket for cash and to get from the shipping
agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. a certificate that he has done so, in order that he may recover the money in
India if he can establish his identity there. Some trouble could be saved to this office,
and possibly some pilgrims who are now refused emergency passes would obtain them,
if the Karachi lists gave the name of the ship by which the pilgrim travelled. The
Karachi authorities say that they are unable to supply this information, but as it
appears in the Bombay lists the difficulty cannot be insurmountable.
His Majesty’s representative in Egypt h;is obtained from the Quarantine Board
another concession of great value. The regulations in force last yeai seated that no
foreign pilgrim could land in Egypt unless he had a ticket to some place beyond, and
this had the ridiculous result of making it impossible for a foreign pilgrim who w;is
unable to book through to his destination from Jeddah to land in Egypt in order
to get his ticket, or, rather, it made it impossible for him to buy a ticket for Egypt
from a reputable company in Jeddah. This has been set right by a circular from the
Quarantine Board to the shipping agencies in Egypt, authorising them to issue tickets
to Suez to any pilgrim who 1C is obliged to land in Egypt” provided that he gets an
embarkation permit from his consulate.
Messrs. Lazzarini, of Suez, who hold the contract for the transport of the Mahmal
and the “official” Egyptian pilgrims this year, are doing their work very efficiently.
There have been no incidents of the kind with which the incompetence and lack of
scruple of M. Schemed made us familiar last year. It is suggestive that, on examining
a complaint which arose because two people were claiming the right to book pilgrims
independently for the same boat, I‘found that the one who had no claim at all was
acting on a letter written by M. Schemed.
All agents booking pilgrims for Syria by direct steamer are charging £1 (gold)
extra for payment to the Director-General of Customs for the Hedjaz Treasury. The
Director-General of Customs wanted to make a similar arrangement for all boats going
to Suez, but the proposal fell through because the Khedivial agents wanted the order in
writing. This they could not get, because the King does not want it to be known that
he taxes his beloved Syrians £1 a head to leave the Hedjaz and wishes to be free to
deny all knowledge of the arrangement. A similar secret tax was levied last year, but
when, towards the end of the season, the news leaked out that the agents were taking
£1 more than the real fare, and some pilgrims complained to Mecca, the King, with his
pockets full of the sovereigns already levied by his orders, flung one of the agents into
gaol for oppressing the pilgrims. As the latest expe rt on Arab affairs, Colonel Jacob,
says in his newly published book, King HussTOliTirgenM, kindly old man. -
Osman Digna, who was allowed by the Sudan Government to come on the
pilgrimage, will have to be sent home again. He is not responsible for his actions, and
there is no one here who can look after him. He bad to be conducted through the rites
of the pilgrimage by force.
The Africans (Takrunis! who were reported last month to be under guard in the
barracks at Mecca as conscripts, were sent to Arafat on duty. They deserted in a body
and fled into the desert. The treatment of Takrunis in the Hedjaz has so scared the
pilgrims who came from Nigeria, &c., this year that, instead of spending some time at
Mecca, as they usually do, and trying to get to Medina, they are all flooding down to
Jeddah to get away as soon as they can. It is to be hoped that they will spread
in their own country the news of the treatment Takrunis get from the “ Caliph.”
King Hussein has recently inflicted heavy fines (£200 in some cases' for over
loading camels, not because he has become a member of Our Dumb Friends’ League,
but because, in order to get still more money out of the tax on camels carrying goods
to Mecca, he has greatly reduced the maximum load a camel may carry, and anyone
who puts a reasonable load on a camel is considered to be defrauding the revenue.