"ملف 61/11 V (D 95) مسائل متنوعة خاصة بالحجاز ونجد" [و‎‎٢‎٤‎٢] (٥٣٠/٥٠٠)

M' (
THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOY ERNMENT
EASTERN (Arabia ). ' December 12, 1933.
CONEIDENTIAE. Section 1
[E 7639/7639/25] No. 1.
Mr. Calvert to Sir John Simon.—{Received December 12.)
(No. 338. Confidential.)
Sir, Jedda, November 22, 1933.
I HAVE the honour to report that Talaat Harb Pasha, who is described in
No. 45 of the List of Leading Personalities in Egypt, enclosed in Cairo despatch
No. 68 of the 9th January, as a Senator and chairman of directors of the Banque
Misr, is understood locally to be flying from Suez to Jedda, with stops at Wejh
and Yanbu, on or about the 2nd December, in a De Llavilland Dragon aeroplane
belonging to Messrs. Misr-Airwork; a ground engineer sent by the latter to
prepare the ground for landing arrived by steamer on the 19th November, and the
agency work for it has been entrusted to Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey and Co. (Sudan)
(Limited), Jedda.
2. Talaat Pasha's objects in this visit, which is not expected to exceed four
days, are said to be threefold, viz., {a) to fix up local representation for the two
pilgrim ships, which, I understand, have recently been purchased by the Egyptisn
Government for the conveyance of Egyptian pilgrims to and from the Hejaz;
(&) to organise the sale of Egyptian products in this country, in particular the
cotton goods which are said to be produced nowadays by a subsidiary company of
the Banque Misr; and {c) to explore the possibility of the Banque Misr opening a
branch in Jedda to assume the functions of a State bank for the Hejaz, in view of
the apparent demise of the ex-Khedive's project (see the correspondence ending
with your confidential despatch No. 266 of the 5th October).
3. To these objects may, perhaps, be added a fourth, namely, that of demon
strating one of Misr-Airwork's aeroplanes to Ibn Saud. You will recall that this
company last year proposed to send an Avro to Jedda for this purpose (see the
correspondence ending with the Acting High Commissioner for Egypt's
Savingram to you. No. 91 of the 19th August, 1932), but did not proceed with the
scheme. Their object at that time was to sell Ibn Saud light military aircraft,
and it seems probable that the recent reports of tension between him and the Imam
Yehya have led them to consider the moment opportune for a serious effort to this
end. Local gossip is rife on the subject, the establishment of an air service
between Egypt and Jedda being suggested in some quarters, whilst other and
unkinder ones suggest that Talaat Pasha's idea in arriving by air is to be able to
leave the country quickly in the event of war with the Yemen materialising.
4. The aeroplane, if and when it arrives, will be the first machine of any
sort to fly in or near the Hejaz since the ill-fated Wapiti, whose crash was
reported in Mr. Hope Gill's telegram No. 201 of the 14th September, 1931. Its
arrival may serve to focus local attention on the parlous condition of the Saudi
Air Force. The latter still consists of the four Wapitis and five old HH. 9's ~
bougETTrom His Majesty's Government; but the former, which alone might be
made to fly, still remain, as they have remained since the time of the crash referred
to above, in their ramshackle hangar, with absolutely no attention except an
occasional greasing by an inexpert hand; while Ibn Saud remains without a single
pilot capable of flying the machines, and without a single competent air-mechanic.
No attempt has been made to develop any ground organisation, and projects, which
have been reported on various occasions from this post, of engaging Turkish
pilots and/or training Saudi subjects in Turkey, have remained unrealised.
5. With Saudi finances still further depleted by the war-preparations, the
scale of which is easily the greatest yet made, the prospects of Ibn Saud being
able to afford the heavy and continuous expense of employing competent pilots and
ground staff, and of his embarking upon the essential refitting of his present
niachines and the ground organisation necessary for any extensive flying, are
receding further and further into the future. The prospects of his buying new
machines seem even more remote, however tempting the opportunity thus to steal
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