مجموعة ٦/ ٩ "تقارير جدة يناير ١٩٣١ -" [ظ‎‎٢‎٩‎٩] (٨٠٢/٥٩٩)

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Tribal leaders are said to have collected at Riyadh in some numbers to meet Ibn
Saud after his return to Nejd and draw on his bounty. Nothing is known of
what, if anything, transpired between them and the King in regard to his
promise, reported in paragraph 245, in which he undertook to keep them informed
of the progress of his negotiations with His Majesty’s Government vis-a-vis
Transjordan.
VI. —Naval Matters.
British.
324. H.M.S. Penzance (Commander A. R. Farquhar, R.N.) arrived at Jedda
on the 30th August and embarked His Majesty’s Minister and sailed for Port
Sudan on the 2nd September.
325. H.M.S. Hastings (Captain C. S. Sandford, R.N.) altered programme
somewhat in order to lie at Port Sudan from the 22nd to the 26th September, in
case naval assistance should be required at Jedda for the embarkation of a slave
manumitted by the Legation (vide chapter VIII).
Foreign.
326. The new Persian fleet, consisting of six small, diesel-driven coastal
units of under 1,000 tons, visited Jedda from the 5th to the 7th October, on their
way from Italy to the Gulf. They made a good impression.
VII.— Pilqrimaqe.
Indian.
327. A large number of questions affecting the Indian pilgrimage has been
treated with the Government of India. Consideration was given to a compre
hensive memorandum by the Government of India on various matters raised in
the Legation’s pilgrimage reports for 1930 and 1931. The Government propose
to deal with these reports in future soon after they are received; this should much
facilitate the work of all engaged in the Indian pilgrimage organisation. On
the 6th October the Legation forwarded to the Government of India a tentative
estimate of the cost in rupees of the 1933 (1351) pilgrimage. This was made out
in detail for three grades of traveller, first-class steamer and by car, second-class
steamer and by bus, and deck passage and by camel. The totals came to (1) 1,700
rupees, or about £130; (2) 1.225 rupees, or about £90; and (3) 570 rupees, or
about £45; the expenses being reckoned from home to home.
Javanese.
328. The prospects of the coming Javanese pilgrimage, the earliest to start
and generally the most numerous of all, are extremely bad. A sum equivalent to
29,000 rupees, or something over £2,000, has been subscribed in Java to enable
some of the large numbers of pilgrims of former years, now destitute in Mecca,
to return home. The Saudi Arab Government, however, are endeavouring to
defer anything like a mass repatriation until after the pilgrimage, from fear of
its adverse effect on would-be pilgrims.
Propaganda.
329. The Saudi Arab Government are maintaining agents and subsidising
newspapers in India, Java and elsewhere to advertise the pilgrimage. This
propaganda is likely to be more marked than last year. An enlarged edition of
the pilgrimage propaganda pamphlet has been distributed wholesale in various
languages.
VIII.— Slavery.
Manumissions.
330. The two male slaves who had taken refuge in the Legation in August
were manumitted and repatriated to Abyssinia in September. One belonged to
the Assistant Governor of Jedda, the other to a leading merchant, and efforts
were made by the authorities to detain both by charging them with theft ; but these