مجموعة ٦/ ٩ "تقارير جدة يناير ١٩٣١ -" [و‎‎٤‎٨] (٨٠٢/٩٦)

[31 x—1] b 2
3
Italian present. The training of pilots which began at the beginning of April
has fallen oh greatly in intensity. This is due to a desire for economy and, in
particular, to a shortage of oil: but more oil “ is to be ordered. One of the h^e
discarded pilots has been taken on again for training. Under the orders of the
Italian colonel of aviation, the pilots, who are already sufficiently confused, are
^ffteing trained indifferently on a Caproni, the French monoplane, the Bellanca and
a Wapiti. M. Naidyonoff, the Russian pilot, says that all the maps of the interior
which they have are inaccurate, but that this does not matter so much as none of
the Saudi pilots know how to read a map in any case.
210. M. Naidyonoff has a theory that Ibn Baud wishes to use aeroplanes as
a cheaper means of keeping the tribes in order than the payment of subsidies. He
says that at the great gathering of sheikhs which is held at Ashaira every year,
Ibn Baud’s presents to the sheikhs have decreased steadily, and last year they were
very small. On one occasion M. Naidyonoff, on orders from Ibn Baud, flew from
the Hejaz to Tebuk, and he states that he acquired great credit in the eyes of
Ibn Baud because a circle or two of his aeroplane over a recalcitrant area near
the Transjordan frontier brought the people there to submission.
211. Muhammad Ali Reza, one of the partners in the leading Saudi firm in
Jedda, informed His Majesty’s Minister that he had been authorised by Ibn Baud
to try to find some foreign firm to take up a concession for minerals (not oil) in
some area or areas outside that covered by the concession granted to the Saudi
Arabian Mining Syndicate. This disposes of the rumours (paragraph 113) that
the Saudi Arabian Mining Syndicate had secured a supplementary concession.
Mr. Ali Reza stated that a German group was interested in gold-mining prospects
in Saudi Arabia, and produced a telegram from Egypt purporting to bear out this
statement. He proposes to visit England and to see whether the Department of
Overseas Trade, to whom he has been given a letter of introduction, can put him
in touch with some British company or companies who might be interested.
212 . One of the semi-official Saudi companies, the Arab Export Company,
has produced a report for the first fourteen months of working. The only articles
of export have been sheep and goat skins, of which the company claims to have
exported 109,058 and 8,348 respectively. It is claimed that the quality of the skins
has been so greatly improved by the action of the company that the price has risen
from half a riyal to one rival, but it seems likely that any increase of price there
has been is attributable partly to a general rise in world prices and partly to the
fact that Messrs. Besse of Aden have been buying here to fill a shortage in supplies
which has resulted from their expulsion from Ethiopia, The company claims to
have made a profit of nearly 50,000 rivals, which amounts to about 24 per cent,
of the paid-up capital. This profit they propose to distribute roughly as follows :
three-fifths to the shareholders, one-fifth to the board of directors, one-tenth to
charity and the rest to reserve.
213. Ibn Sand’s Indian chauffeur failed to establish the proposed transport
company (paragraph 9), and the concession has now been granted to Muhammad
Tawil, Director of Customs in Hasa. The most important of the conditions
appeared in the Saut-al-Hejaz of the 25th May. The name of the company is
to be the Nedji Car Company. The capital consists of £15,000 gold in 3.000
£5 shares. The functions of the company are the transport of pilgrims from ports
in Nejd to the Hejaz and back, and the carriage of passengers between the Hejaz,
Nejd and Hasa and between one Nejd town and another. The concession is for
twenty years. No other company or person may carry passengers (? and pilgrims)
for hire.
214. On one voyage this month the Khedivial steamship Talodi arrived
carrying a considerable quantity of explosives which had been consigned from
Suez to the small Egyptian port of Ras Ghulam, where the Talodi was to call after
touching at Port Sudan and at Jedda (twice) and other Saudi ports. The Saudi
authorities have no regulations on the subject, but, acting on the analogy of vessels
which bring petrol from Aden and on such occasions are not allowed to carry
more than twelve passengers (under the Indian Shipping Act), they refused to
allow the vessel to embark more than twelve passengers for the Sudan instead
of the much larger number who wished to travel by her. Eventually, the Minister
of Finance allowed the Khedivial agents to leave all the explosives on a dhow in
the outer harbour, and to pick them up on return. The problem arose again,
however, when the Talodi wished to embark seventy passengers for Wejh. The
agents were finally allowed to put the explosives on board again and to embark