File 1707/1924 ‘Arabia:- Jeddah Situation Reports. (1924-1930)’ [‎430v] (865/898)

have made difficulties over the transport of coal for the Hedjaz Railway and refused to
repair some tools sent to them. The letter is the sort which the King could always
Quote afterwards as evidence of his perfect innocence. . 1V , M
q It is stated that owing to the high charges levied on pilgrims travelling to Mecca
via Jeddah some of the African pilgrims who would ordinarily come from Poit oouda^.
to Jeddah’by sea are trekking painfully to Eritrea whence they take dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. to the,
Yemen, there to begin another long trek to Mecca by land.
King Hussein recently summoned the leading “ Easterlings ly.e. Nejdis) residen
in Mecca and said that notonlv were they now free to trade with Nejd, but Nejdis might
come on the pilgrimage so long as they did not come arme . .
Dr W Th de Vogel of the Netherlands East Indies Civil Health Service, who has
been commissioned by the’Netherlands Colonial Office to study quarantine arrangements
for the return pilgrimage, spent a night here on Ins way from lor to Aden. He mud
wanted to see Lmaran : this agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. therefore gave him a letter ot recommendation to
the Resident at Aden. . j • ,i t n
The Government of India have approved a suggestion made m the Jeddah
Pilgrimage Report for 1923, that when the pilgrimage is declared to be clean, ships
carrying pilgrims back to India and the Persian Gull need not call at Kamaran.
The Netherlands vice-consul, a Javanese, has reported to his chief on the first
Javanese caravan of the year, which has now returned to Mecca from Medina, and the
information has been' passed on to me. The tolls levied were not very heavy : they
varied from U. to 31. a head. Besides this, however, there were many robberies, with
or without violence, of sums varying from small amounts up to oOt I he King
announced that he would refund all tolls (though not sums alleged to have been stolen);
at the same time he told the guides that any sums paid as compensation would come out
of their pockets, so they persuaded the pilgrims to regard their losses as a gift to God.
Other “ gifts to God” made by one section of the caravan i about a tenth ot the wholes
from whom the Netherlands vice-consul was able to make full enquiries because they
came from his district and included some of his relations, w T ere :
Item : Many brutal beatings.
Item : Loss of both hands by one man.
Item : Loss of both ears by another man.
Item : One man and four women carried off into slavery.
The Bedouin regard the pilgrims as sent by God for their maintenance, and this, in
their eyes, justifies the robbery, accompanied, as it often is, by brutality, of the caravans,
which fall into their hands. In this belief and conduct they differ very httle trom the
dignatories in Mecca and Medina. Even the practice of carrying off Moslems m o
slavery, which is forbidden by the Koran, can be matched every year m the towns,
where people of importance buy Moslem children or minor girls either from their
relatives or, the relatives having died on the pilgrimage, from the people into whose
hands they have fallen. . T .. . , u
H.M.S. “ Cornflower” visited Jeddah during this month. An Italian cruiser, the
“ Libia,” also called. The “ Kibla ” announces that it called to visit the Government of
His Majesty the Caliph, and that the Government gave a banquet to the captain,
officers and crew. This should not he taken to mean recognition of the King as Dalip ,
for M. Mussolini, after consulting His Majesty’s Government, telegraphed to the Italian
consul here to observe the strictest neutrality in the matter. The visit is proba y
simply one manifestation of the greater activity in the Red Sea which Italy has been
showing lately. .,
After His Majesty’s Government had taken endless trouble to find some tern ory
where the remaining Turkish refugees could go, and the Palestine Government a
generously agreed to receive them, the refugees stated that they did not wish to go to
Palestine, and the Hedjaz Government, hitherto so eager for their departure, a owe
them to stay. Annoying as this behaviour is, it at least relieves His Majesty s Govern
ment of any responsibility, even in the eyes of the Hedjaz Government.
The King appears to have been badly bitten over the first of his new ships. Lrig
tales of its excellent condition and perfect suitability for the pilgrim traffic were curren
until the announcement of its name, the “ San Remo,” enabled us to learn frorn L °y s
Register ” that she was thirty-one years old. The director of customs, who was mdirec y
concerned in the purchase, is much depressed by this discovery. I understand tha e
present price of a steamer eight or ten years old is from 4k to 5l. a ton. At that ra e,
the “ San Remo” should have cost, at most, 7,000k, if she had been twenty yeais 01