مجموعة ٦/ ٩ "تقارير جدة يناير ١٩٣١ -" [و‎‎١‎٨‎٨] (٨٠٢/٣٧٦)

^ THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
*
EASTERN (Arabia).
4 iA'
December 17, 1934.
CONFIDENTIAL.
Section 1.
[E 7516/715/23]
No. 1.
Mr. Calvert to Sir John Simon —
-(Received December 17.)
(No. 355. Confidential.)
Jedda, December 3, 1934.
I HAVE the honour to submit herewith the Jedda report for November 1934..
2. Copies have been distributed as in the list appended for the report for
January.
I have, &c.
A. S. CALVERT.
Enclosure in No. 1.
Jedda Report for November 1934.
I .—Internal Affairs.
265. Ibn Saud continued during November to receive at Riyadh visits
from detachments of Nejdi tribesmen, of whom, it is stated, there has been a
daily average of about 4.000 receiving the King’s bounty. This has taken the
form of one large meal a day for three or four days, rations of tea, sugar and
the like, and an £ ‘ annual allowance ’ ’ in cash per man. This hospitable treat
ment, before the days of economic depression said to be an annual occurrence,
has been resumed this year, but has been limited strictly to those who saw active
service in the late war. It must nevertheless have cost Ibn Saud a pretty penny,
and it would be interesting to know where the money came from. The number
of fresh arrivals was daily diminishing about the middle of the month, and
probably ceased soon after, as the King left for a week’s hunting expedition to
the west of the Dahna on the 20th.
266. Amir Feisal left for Riyadh on the 10th, leaving Sheikh Abdullah-al-
Fadhl to act as Viceroy and President of the Council of Ministers. He was still
absent from the Hejaz at the end of the month.
267. Fuad Bey Hamza had not returned at the end of November, but, to
anticipate the report for next month, he arrived on the 2nd December by Italian
steamer. He was met on board by a representative of the Amir and by the Italian
Charge d’Affaires, and, generally, his return was not so solitary an event as was
his departure last July.
268. Sheikh Abdullah Suleiman also left for Riyadh early in November, but
returned within a few days to Mecca, where, on the 25th, he gave a dinner to
Muhammad Talaat Harb Pasha (see paragraph 275). He visited Jedda during
the last four days of the month.
269. Other arrivals in Riyadh were Amir Abdul Aziz-bin-Misaid, Amir of
Hail, who arrived from his post about the 28th October, and Khalid-al-Qarqani
from Mecca a few days later. The presence of Amir Feisal and these various
notables on visit to the Nejdi capital lends colour to the rumour that the King has
been holding an important conference.
270. (Reference paragraph 237 in last month’s report.) Sheikh Abdul
Aziz-bin-Muammar, Amir of Jedda, returned on the 11th, after an absence of
more than two months in Taif and Mecca.
271. The situation in the Teima area is still obscure. It is stated that the
trouble arose through the refusal of Abdul Karim-bin-Rumman to pay “ zakat ”
and the murder of some Saudi tax-collectors. Ibn Saud is said to have sent a
force of 400 men under Amir Muhammad to deal with the malcontents. Another
informant, recently arrived from Riyadh, categorically denied the existence of any
trouble whatsoever, either in Teima or elsewhere (for unconfirmed reports had
[281 r—1]
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