مجموعة ٦/ ٩ "تقارير جدة يناير ١٩٣١ -" [ظ‎‎٢‎٦‎٥] (٨٠٢/٥٣١)

9
cars for special Government use and for lorries on terms equal to those offered
by other vendors. Although private persons may import cars of any make, it is
provided in this contract that they shall not ply for hire. The company get a
monopoly of all import of tyres and other accessories. They undertake to provide
service stations at Mecca, Jedda, Medina, Riyadh and other places to be agp*^p
upon. Conditions are laid down for the fixation of prices of tyres, &c., but not,
in the published summary, of those of the actual cars. The margin over factory
prices allowed in the case of the former appears very small to cover overhead
expenses, depreciation and profit. All goods supplied to the Government and the
transport companies are to be charged to an account payable out of 50 per cent,
of the receipts of the Naqaba or Government organisation in control of transport.
It is considered doubtful whether the contract is a feasible business proposition,
and there is no news up to date of Mr. Philby’s success in his efforts to obtain
financial backing. He has gone on from Egypt to England.
111. There has been a revival of interest in the scheme for supplying Jedda
with water from Waziriya (see paragraph 167 of the report for May-June 1932).
The Government have enlisted the expert, though not apparently, the financial
assistance of the capable Ain Zubeyda Committee in Mecca. A leading member
of this committee, a highly respectable Indian of Mecca, claims to have discovered
an underground stream of fresh water much superior to the brackish well-water
raised by Mr. TwitchelTs windmill. In the latter half of June a gang of over
100 labourers from Mecca were employed on the underground works.
112. A regulation prescribing additions to the two schedules of goods
subject to specific duties and the goods subject to increased ad valorem duties (see
paragraphj£4 of the last report) was published on the 23rd June.
113. There was no visible change in the financial situation in June.
114. The internal situation continued to be peaceful, as far as could be
judged. Ibn Musaid, Governor of Hail and cousin to the King, who had been in
charge of the operations in Asir, arrived in Mecca on the 13th June and left for
Hail on the 24th June. It is claimed that he had not only repressed the rebellion,
but had reorganised the Administration. The appointment of new Governors at
Abha, to which place Turki-as-Sdayri, a relative on the maternal side of Ibn Saud
has been transferred from Jauf, and at Jizan was announced on the 23rd June.
The Umm-al-Qura has published much about the present and past of Asir,
insisting on the thesis that the theatre of the rebellion was not Asir proper but
the districts of Sabya, Jizan and Abu Arish, which are more correctly called
Tihamat Asir, the littoral region as opposed to the inland region of Asir proper
or Asir Surat. Tihamat Asir, the former territory of the Idrisi, now becomes a
province to be ruled by the Governor at Jizan assisted by a council under the
general supervision of the Governor at Abha. Although all seems so stable in
Asir, a feeling of misgiving persists in many quarters. It was intensified in June
by reports that quite important forces were again being sent thither both by land
and by sea. A launch, which the Government bought some years ago through
Mr. Philby, and which was long thought to be useless, was put into working order
some little time ago and has been running to and from Jizan. It is hard to judge
whether the forces sent are reinforcements with a view to possible fighting,
replacements of casualties and cases of disease or reliefs. It is possible that the
despatch of troops is a result of the alleged tension in the hinterland (see
paragraph 121 below).
115. Before leaving for Riyadh the King approved of several other appoint
ments to provincial governorates, notably in the region near the Transjordan
frontier, where there has been a considerable redistribution of posts. He also
conferred a title equivalent to that of Poet Laureate on Ahmed Ibrahim-al-
Ghazzawi, the Secretary of the Legislative Council and a well-known versifier
and publicist. No mention was made of a salary, much less a butt of sack, to
inspire his further efforts. Pegasus treads on air, unaided by such stimulants
in Arabia.
amendment to the existing regulations on firearms was published
on the 2nd June It was not as a whole important, but it provided that licences
to carry arms should not be issued to foreigners except on production of a
certificate froin the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. A regulation on the practice
ot medicine pharmacy, &e., by private persons was published on the 8th June.
It is not illiberal m conception, but it is too soon to judge of its practical effects,
if it should have any.