مجموعة ٦/ ١٩ "الجزيرة العربية: (المملكة العربية السعودية) التقرير السنوي لمملكة الحجاز ونجد." [و‎‎٢‎٢‎١] (٥٤٠/٤٤٢)

bold enough to speak their minds as to the character of Sheikh Abdullah
Suleiman’s Administration and the necessity for a budget. This angered the
King, who was reported to have used language that might be summed up in the
words, “ le budget, c’est moi! ” According to some, the attitude of the bolder
spirits on this question decided His Majesty to bring the proceedings to a
premature close. For the rest, the conference produced so little in the way of
concrete results during the remainder of the year that it is unnecessary to enlarge
much further on its activities. It is worth noting, however, that it advocated a
reform whereby the mutawwifs should cease to be intermediaries for the
collection of taxes on pilgrims; suggested that all cases pending in the courts
should be submitted to a review by four named ulema; approved the idea that
Hejazi currency should be brought into use throughout Ibn Baud’s dominions
and that the Maria Theresa dollar should be gradually eliminated; and favoured
the promotion of economic development by means of foreign experts and
concessions, but subject to the reservation that the experts and concessionnaires
should be Moslems.
120. The King was now preparing to depart for Riadh. Before he left on
the 28th June he took two steps which were, perhaps, intended more to conciliate
religious opinion in Nejd than to inaugurate a new policy in the Hejaz. He
allowed to be published in the “ Umm-al-Qura ” a letter addressed to him by the
ulema of Nejd on the impropriety from an Islamic point of view of repeated
annual celebrations to commemorate his accession, together with his own reply.
The remonstrance of the ulema was deferential but perfectly firm. The King
expressed his delight at receiving their counsel, accepted their view unreservedly
and asked pardon of God for his offence. At the same time steps were taken to
revive in a slightly modified form arrangements, which had for some time lapsed
almost completely, to combat vicious practices like abstention from prayer, the
public use or sale of tobacco (an article which the Wahhabis reprehend, although
its importation is tolerated), and the use of gramophones, &c.
121. Despite the impoverishment of the Treasury, the King’s progress to
Riadh was effected with all the customary parade. Most of his relatives and his
household accompanied him, and the vehicles used ran to many hundreds. He was
said to have taken with him large quantities of Hejazi silver money for use in
Nejd, intending, it was suggested, to pay his subsidies in that coin as one means
of extending its use. To some his departure presented the appearance of a
flight from the Hejaz. There could be no ground for such a suggestion. He had
been absent from Nejd almost without interruption for over a year and could
not neglect it indefinitely. Nevertheless, his year in the Hejaz had been a year
of failure to cope with problems too complicated for him. He left it in a mess
and without any strong or coherent administration, once he himself was not
on the spot. The Amir Feisal, the Viceroy, has little apparent capacity for
affairs. With him were left Fuad Bey Hamza, a man of ideas and industry, but
no compelling influence, the deplorable Sheikh Abdullah Suleiman and others less
known, the principal of whom would appear to be Abdullah-al-Fadhl, Vice-
President of the Legislative Council. For nearly three months the Hejaz drifted
aimlessly. If anyone dominated the local stage it was Abdullah Suleiman,
pursuing a policy of extortion which culminated in the flagrant robbery of the
benzine”belonging to the Egyptian Shell and Standard Oil companies in
September (see paragraphs 213 and 214). Fuad Hamza found himself relegated to
a siding, while things went more and more wrong. The benzine affair helped to
precipitate a crisis. On the 17th September, the Amir and Fuad Bey came to
Jedda to investigate that and certain other matters, including the air force
situation and the complaints of the Nejdi soldiers, who were unpaid and restless.
At this juncture Mr. Philby came upon the scene and for once played an
important role. For some months he had been growing disillusioned with his
adopted country and even with Ibn Saud. The theft of the Standard Oil benzine
caused him to boil over with indignation against Abdullah Suleiman when he,
Mr. Philby, arrived from Riadh at the end of September. It was apparently
due to his intervention that the Viceroy, Fuad Bey and the Al-Fadhls combined
in an attempt to overthrow the Director-General of Finance. Abdullah-al-Fadhl
took to Riadh on the 23rd October a report to the King in which they threatened
resignation unless Abdullah Suleiman were removed. Thither went also
Abdullah Suleiman himself.