مجموعة ٦/ ١٩ "الجزيرة العربية: (المملكة العربية السعودية) التقرير السنوي لمملكة الحجاز ونجد." [و‎‎٢‎٥‎٣] (٥٤٠/٥٠٦)

33
[5545] d
III.— Internal Affairs.
(1) General Situation.
^ 107. This must be a short section. Only the most spectacular events in
,he interior become known with any certainty in Jedda. The country possesses
one poor weekly newspaper, which appears and is carefully controlled at Mecca.
There is no internal telegraphic service, except for some old Government wireless.
There are no rapid means of communication of any kind away from the few main
tracks dignified by the name of roads. There are no foreign press correspondents
worth mentioning, even on the coast. There are no facilities for Europeans
to travel. There are no instructed people except in a few main centres, and not
many in these. The rumours of the bazaars are as fantastic as in other oriental
countries and less controllable. “ There is trouble in Nejd, ' one hears in Jedda.
“ The Ataibah are up and have cut the road to Riadh.” “ A revolt has broken
out north of Medina, and the heir apparent has been sent to quell it." “ The
Mutair are loose in the neighbourhood of Hail.” “ Feisal-ad-Dawish is dead."
“ Feisal-ad-Dawish has escaped.” “ The King’s brother, the Amir Muhammad,
has gone against him and liberated all the political prisoners at Riadh."
108. All that can be said is that in 1930 there were no spectacular events
from the middle of January up to the end of the year. The rebellion of 1929, to
which reference has already been made, had practically collapsed by the end of
that year. The surrender of the principal leaders in Iraq and Kowait on and
before the 9th January marked the end of it. Ibn Baud vas still personally
conducting operations on his own side of the Kowait frontier at that time. Just
before the 12th January he destroyed two parties of rebels, one under a certain
Ibn Ashwan, who had been of some consequence among the Mutair tribe. These
were the last recorded incidents of a warlike character. Up to the end of
December, despite rumours of the kind described above, there was no sign of any
situation with which the King could not deal without organising fresh
expeditions.
109. Ibn Baud’s rule is not popular in places like Mecca and Jedda, but it is
uneasily tolerated. Early in the year comment was excited by the visit to Mecca
of one Abdullah-bin-Blaihid, who had been appointed by the King in 1925 to be
Grand Mufti of the Hejaz, but who was relegated in 1927 to the post of Qadi of
Hail. He is said to be an outspoken man, and his visit to Mecca was reported to
be embarrassing to the Government. They have little to fear from townsmen,
however. These are not of the stuff of which revolutionaries are made, and, in
any case, they enjoy a curious freedom under the autocracy of Ibn Baud. Now
and then attempts are made to impose a more serious observance of Wahhabite
principles. A drive was made in this direction early in 1930, when special
policemen from Nejd were imported to enforce regulations drawn up by
Committees of Public Virtue of a sort. They raged against music, laxity in
attendance at mosque, public smoking, &c. It was suggested that this activity
was due to a desire to propitiate unco’guid chieftains who were expected to
arrive from Nejd or to impress pilgrims, and it was thought that the naturally
easy-going inhabitants of Jedda would have to put up with it for some time.
From May onwards, however, little was heard of extreme measures. During the
summer of 1930 Jedda Gaol, a picturesque ruin opposite the British Legation,
was a conspicuous centre of evening merriment. It was not known whether the
warders or the prisoners were concerned in the revels or whether they were the
result of a combined effort.
110. It would be easy but useless to prolong this chronicle of small beer.
Anything of importance that was known of the internal situation in 1930 can be
summed up in a few r sentences. After his conquest of the rebels, Ibn Baud
dominated the tribal situation everywhere. The tribes which had been in revolt
were cowed rather than loyal, and these included the Ataibah, who bestride the
road between the two capitals. There were no evidences of serious insecurity, and
it is due to the King to say that the more accessible regions, e.g., the country
round Jedda and up to Medina, have, under his regime, been made safer than they
w r ere in old days, wdien it was a dangerous adventure to go more than a mile
outside the walls of Jedda. Accurate news of what passed in the interior of Nejd