مجموعة ٦/ ١٩ "الجزيرة العربية: (المملكة العربية السعودية) التقرير السنوي لمملكة الحجاز ونجد." [ظ‎‎١‎٦‎٩] (٥٤٠/٣٣٩)

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(b) A “ high decree ” of the 28th July dealt with the creation of a Board
of Education.
(r) A communique of the 9th June laid down rules regarding the practice
of medicine and allied avocations by private doctors, &c.
156. The regulations at (a) in the preceding paragraph had more to do
with the unification of Ibn Baud’s dominions in 1932 than with the drive against*
certain categories of foreigners, which will be described in paragraph 179 below,
but both may be regarded as parts of a scheme, not unreasonable if it were carried
out rationally and without undue hardship, for clarifying the position in regard
to the many nondescripts who abound in Saudi Arabia. The regulations at (c)
were liberally conceived, but gave rise to some anxiety in the British Legation
lest they should be a prelude to efforts to bring the Government of India
dispensaries under the control of the Saudi Director-General of Public Health,
who has more than once shown signs of longing to have them, or at least the
Mecca branch, under his thumb.
157. In a note dated the 13th July, the Saudi Government claimed the right
to adhere to the definition of territorial waters adopted in the regulation
mentioned in paragraph 150 (/) of the report for 1932. The Legation safeguarded
the position of His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom in a reply
dated the 15th July, and the Secretary of State did not consider it necessary to
pursue the matter further.
VIII.— Press.
158. Practically nothing need be added to what was said in paragraphs 152
and 153 of the report for 1932. The weekly Umm-al-Qura continued to be
conducted on the same lines during 1933, and was the effective organ of the Saudi
Government for most purposes. The Saut-al-Hijaz survived as a blameless second
fiddle.
159. Events in Saudi Arabia attract some attention in Arab countries, and
some papers, in Egypt especially, get more or less regular correspondence from
the Hejaz. Nothing that happened in 1933 was of sufficient interest in western
circles to draw any European foreign correspondents to the country, although the
affaire d'Andhurin (paragraph 76) and the Saudi-Yemen imbroglio proved to
have some slight news value. Reuters telegraphed “ Unrequire ” to Messrs.
Gellatly, Hankey and Co., when they asked whether to report on the negotiations
in Jedda for a Saudi—Transjordan settlement, but reproached them for not telling
the world that Mme. d’Andhurin had been hanged in Mecca, when that rumour
was circulated by some enterprising newsmonger. Mr. Philby resumed his
connexion with the Near East and India at the end of the year, although his first
news-letter did not appear until the number of the 4th January, 1934.
IX. —Education.
160. Members of the Legation staff have endeavoured to collect information
regarding this little known subject. The results of their enquiries are worth
summarising, but, in the absence of official information, they can only be given
very tentatively. Broadly speaking, the main conclusions are as follows : {a) The
Saudi Government appear to have preserved to a large extent in the Hejaz the
old Turkish system of primary and secondary schools with certain additions.
(b) There are in Mecca, Jedda and Medina a certain number of private schools,
some of which are important and with which the Government do not interfere
unduly, although they are inspected, (c) The educational system is dominated by
the importance attached to religious studies, but purely Wahhabi teaching is not
insisted on in all cases, and a certain amount of secular instruction is imparted.
(d) Very moderate numbers of students have been sent abroad in past years under
Government or private auspices, but the impoverishment of the treasury and of
private benefactors has reduced the number to a very low ebb. (e) There is no
provision for female education in schools, girls being left to get what they can
from private tuition in their houses or from mistresses teaching the Koran, some
Arabic and some needlework in their own houses. (/) There is no evidence of
an organised educational system in Nejd, where the chief means of instruction
is said to be that afforded by mullahs teaching in the mosques.