Coll 30/9 'Persian Gulf: Administration Reports 1926-1938' [‎327r] (658/1028)

(j) On 1st December 2 junior members of tbe Royal House of Hejaz and
Nejd, Fahad bin Turki al Saud and bis brother Athaar appeared in Kuwait accom
panied by five tribesmen of the al Murrah, and after staying 2 days informed the
Ruler that they were returning to their uncle the Ruler of Hassa, Abdullah bin
Jaloui. W hen one day out of Kuwait, it seems that they doubled on their tracks and
made for Zubair and Basrah. A regular flutter was caused in the local dovecots of
Hejaz, Bagdad, etc., as it became evident that the youths had from the first been
refugees, trying to escape and reach Iraq. Bin Saud’s Trade Agent Al Nafisi sent
immediate warnings to ibn Jaloui and His Majesty King Bin Satid that the youths
had gone North and a good deal of rather unnecessary telegraphing resulted. In
the end the young men were returned by His Majesty King Faisal of Iraq to
Kuwait, and were sent back under escort to their uncle in Hoffuf. From a conver
sation which the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. had with the runaways, it was obvious that Fahad
the elder was somewhat weak in the head.
VII. — Locusts.
For the 3rd year in succession Kuwait was visited by the locusts. Large
flights of these insects appeared over the State on 25th March, and on 28th, 29th
and 30th March, dense clouds of these pests appeared over the Town of Kuwait
flying North. From news previously received from Nejd in February, it was anti
cipated that locusts would reach the Kuwait frontier by the end of March but it
was not thought by those who know the wlaysof these insects, that the dreaded
“ Dibba ” or newly hatched locusts in the crawler stage, would follow after the
locusts themselves, as the parent locusts had arrived and laid their eggs too late
in the season to allow of their offspring surviving the torrid heat of the sun after
hatching.
These prophesies unfortunately were incorrect for on the 19th April the
dreaded £< Dibba ” made their appearance simultaneously in different parts of the
State and mostly to the South of it, and according to the strange ways of these
insects whose instinct almost invariably causes theiii to move in a Northerly direc
tion when they hatch, they began to march North towards the Bay of Kuwait.
On 30th April some of them reached the outskirts of the Town and at once
began to devour the vegetable gardens lying on the Southern suburbs.
On 7th May the vanguard was reinforced by the main army consist
ing of billions more of the crawlers, and the moving green and black mass surged
over the walls of the city, much as molten larva progresses down hill from a volcano,
and invaded the whole Town from its eastern to its western end. Besides devouring
all the kitchen gardens lying inside the walls and doing heavy damage to the
shops in the bazaars the beasts invaded the innermost privacy of private houses
in ever increasing and loathsome swarms. For a full 10 days the inhabitants bore
with the dreadful plague, and by 17th the situation became intolerable, and day and
night was one long nightmare. One’s food, clothes, bedclothes and even furniture
were attacked by the starving and voracious insects. As in the case of the plagues
of Egypt, relief came in the shape of a mighty wind which blew for 15 hours
from the North-East. The Dibbas were driven out of the Town in a westerly
direction and along the Southern shore of the bay. Countless millions of the
insects must have been drowned in the sea, but the plague was removed and
Kuwait breathed once more.
The “ Dibbas ” did not appear again, but it was sad to see the damage done
over the country side where the scanty grazing which lies to the immediate
South of Kuwait, was all devoured for miles round about.
Fortunate it was that the original flights of locusts which settled and laid the
eggs which produced the above plague, arrived too late, and no doubt only a
comparatively small proportion of the eggs laid actually hatched. There is no
doubt that countless numbers of newly hatched insects must have been killed by
the hot sun and what one actually saw, were only a fraction of what might have
been.
VIII. —Pearl Season.
As a result of the slump m the pearl trade generally, there was a shortage of
money among the owners of the pearling boats, when the season once more came
round. Combining together therefore they decided on giving reduced advances
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