File 1707/1924 ‘Arabia:- Jeddah Situation Reports. (1924-1930)’ [‎419r] (842/898)

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I have reserved the right to take up later the case of the pilgrims who have been
disappointed m their hope to see Medina, but if they receive the promised compensation
or only slightly less, the matter had better be dropped. The Indian pilgrims who
spent a month in the desert at Khaif last year and had to pay tolls amounting to £10
a camel, were fml of indignation when they left Jeddah, but by the time they had
reached India they had agreed to keep their troubles dark; and though they make
private enquiries from this agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. about compensation, no Indian paper that I have
heard of lias mentioned the scandalous incident. Whether this silence is due to
re igious oi o po itical motives 1 do not know, but it is discouraging to find oneself
more Mahometan than the pilgrims themselves.
The Hedjaz Government have published a notice stating that no pilgrim will be
a owe to go to Medina on foot unless he has a certificate, signed by himself and
countersigned by the consular authority concerned, declaring that he insists on goino- on
foot and that he exempts the Hedjaz authorities from all responsibility for what may
happen to him. Ihere seems to be no reason to object to this measure. No British
pi grim walks who can afford to ride with a caravan, so that there is no question of
forcing British subjects to go by caravan in order to swell the revenue obtained by the
tax on pilgrim camels. The Dutch consulate, however, is inclined to think that
the measure is amied partly at the strong-minded Palambang pilgrims, who, although
they have plenty of money, nearly always walk, as a protest against the high charges
Some of the pilgrim charges are being raised again. Many pilgrims seem to have
paid neaily £16 for their fruitless journey, as against £14 and 2 dollars, and the tax on
each pilgrim going to Mecca from Jeddah has been increased.
The pilgrims on a British ship which arrived recently went to ask the captain’s
advice about an offer which the Acting Director of Quarantine had made them. For
£40 they could go straight ashore ; for £20 they would be allowed to do their quarantine
on board and land next day, whereas if they paid the doctor nothing they would have
to follow the usual practice and go to the quarantine islands. The captain said they
could do what they liked, but they were not going to remain on his ship another da\.
Eventually the negotiations fell through because the pilgrims feared that when they
had parted with their £40 the doctor would break his word. So they went to the
quarantine islands, where, as usual, they stayed until next morning. This process,
coupled with the sprinkling of the pilgrims with sea-water, is supposed to afford them
adequate protection. The sterner measure of sprinkling with sea-water is sometimes
omitted.
I learn on good authority that the sum given to the Director-General of Quarantine
for the establishment of his hospitals at Maan and Akaba was £300. Of this he will
have embezzled a certain amount, though perhaps not more than £100, so the hospital
is not likely to be able to cope with any serious epidemic. This probably does not
matter, as the pilgrimage has been clean for several years, and, with similar conditions
prevailing, should be clean this year ; but if an epidemic should breakout in the Hedjaz,
it would be rash to assume that the sanitary measures adopted by the Hashimite
Government at Maan were sufficient to protect the countries beyond.
At onetime *t was rumoured that there was an epidemic in Mecca. Pilgrims were
in fact dying at the rate of 100 to 150 a day, but I am satisfied that the heat and
the usual dysentery, with perhaps some cases of typhoid, are sufficient to account for
the mortality. There was a terrible heat-wave which lasted more than a month and
coincided with a shortage of water. It appears that there had been interference with
Ain Zubaidah, which supplies the city with drinking water. The trouble was eventually
put right, but meanwhile the poorer pilgrims may well have suffered from lack of water,
when the price was 3s. or 4s. for a 4-gallon tin.
His Majesty’s High Commissioner for Egypt has secured a change in the Sudan
quarantine regulations which will be very helpful to us. In Egypt the pilgrim season
is officially announced to be closed when nearly all the pilgrims are known to have left
the Hedjaz, but this has not hitherto been held to apply to the Sudan. Consequently
any ship carrying to the Sudan from the Hedjaz, at any time, persons suspected of
being pilgrims, unless the number of deck passengers was below one for every 100 tons,
had to be disinfected. As this process costs £50, in addition to the loss resulting
from the delay, the Khedivial Company—which provides the only regular means of
communication with the Sudan—refused to carry Sudanese, Nigerians, &c., in numbers
which might bring them within the scope of this onerous regulation. It has now been
decided that, once the pilgrimage is declared in Egypt to be over, ships may take to
Suakin from Jeddah any number of pilgrims, within the limits of their ordinary passenger
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