مجموعة ٦/ ٩ "تقارير جدة يناير ١٩٣١ -" [ظ‎‎٥‎٤] (٨٠٢/١٠٩)

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156. The King left Jedda for Mecca on the 22nd April, and left the Hejaz
for Riyadh on the 26th. Probably he will not be seen again on this side of Arabia
for another nine months or more.
157. Fnad Bey Hamza has not returned from the leave on which he departed
rather mysteriously on the 6 th March (paragraph 107). Stories are current in
Jedda that he has fallen from favour. Now that Sheikh Yusuf Yasin has gone
to England with the Amir Saud, there is no one in the country able to deal with
foreign affairs except the King. It is true that the King runs foreign affairs
in any case, but at least Sheikh Yusuf Yasin, still more Fuad Bey, could talk
about them to foreign representatives. The staff in the Ministry is now reduced
to one or two very young Syrians and a lumpish Hejazi, who is reputed to have
been put there as a make-weight. Whether the Amir Faisal does much as Viceroy
or not, it is believed that he knows nothing about those foreign affairs for which
he is nominally Minister. According to the Turkish Charge d'Affaires the Amir
Faisal, when "M. Palsay tried to discuss with him some eight or nine current
questions, became more and more uncomfortable as he asked, with regard to each
in turn, that it might be made the subject of a written communication.
158. According to the Saut-al-Hejaz, a Copt named Salama Musa has
published in the Egyptian newspaper Misr an article reporting the formation in
Egypt of a society entitled “ The Friends of the Hejaz,’' and having for its
object, to ventilate Hejaz grievances and to work for the independence of the
Hejaz. The Saut-al-Hejaz suggests that this heretic and unbeliever should mind
his own business, and asks by what authority he has formed such a society. An
angry article on the same subject has appeared in the Umm-al-Qura, and from a
private source it is learned that the Saudi Government were so much disturbed
by the article that they protested to the Government of Egypt, who, however,
replied that the press in Egypt being free they could not take any action. The
Hejazis have a grievance, viz., that most of the income from the pilgrimage, which
was formerly their perquisite, now goes to Nejd, and a minor grievance that
nearly all the important posts, whether in Nejd or in the Hejaz, are held by
Nejdis. The news of the formation of the “Friends of the Hejaz’’ society,
even if baseless, is not likely to check a regrettable tendency which the Legation
notices in official Saudi circles, towards giving the Hejazis a freer hand with
foreign pilgrims.
159. Early in April the Caproni aeroplane began to appear nearly every
day for a short flight. Five of the ten Italian-trained Saudi pilots have now been
discarded, but the remaining five are being given lessons on the Caproni by an
Italian pilot, and it is stated that the training is to be completed by lessons given
by the Russian refugee pilot, M. Naidyonoff, on a Wapiti and then on the French
monoplane, which is described as the most difficult machine to fly. One of the
Wapitis is working, and spare parts for the other three are on order. According
to M. Naidyonoff, only one of the Saudi pilots has any air sense. The Amir Saud
and some of the other amirs went up in the Caproni. It was reported that they
were taken up by Saudi pilots, but in fact an Italian pilot was at the duplicate
control and effected the landings. The other two Capronis, to complete the Italian
gift, arrived from Rome on the 27th April. The Saudi authorities gave them a
scurvy reception. The only persons who went to the landing-ground to meet
them were the Commandant of Jedda and a customs official. The Italian Govern
ment are providing military personnel for the gift aeroplanes by a system of
six-monthly reliels. Ihe personnel for the one Caproni and the two remaining
instructional machines was two pilots (one colonel, one captain) and four
mechanics; other pilots and mechanics arrived with the other two Capronis.
It is believed that the salaries of the personnel are paid by the Italian Govern
ment, and that the Saudi Government contributes nothing but food and lodging.
160. The excellent Bellanca monoplane which the Saudi Arabian Mining
Syndicate have used for exploration and survey purposes has been offered to the
Saudi Government for what is said to be the low price of £ 2 , 000 , but the offer
has not been accepted. This machine has shown great reliability, but then the
pilot and the mechanic, both Americans, seem to have been of unusual skill and
experience.
101 . The employees of “ certain departments ’’ are stated by the press to
have volunteered to contribute one month's pay towards the work of the Ministry
of Defence and for aviation. It is not stated whether they have merely written
of! some of the arrears of pay due to them, or have renounced their pay for some