مجموعة ٦/ ٩ "تقارير جدة يناير ١٩٣١ -" [و‎‎٣‎١‎٨] (٨٠٢/٦٣٦)

[542 c—3] c
anything from perhaps 800 to 1,800 men, not in all probability very fully armed
or mounted, and a portion of it may have been strung along the region to the
south of Haikl. There is no evidence of his having reached any important place
like Muweyla or Dhaba, the occupation of which might improve his chances;
much less Wejh, his original habitat, for it is there that his family, an important
one in the Billi tribe, have their town quarters in the Hejaz.
184. A new and disconcerting element was introduced into the situation
when, on the night of the 26th June, a party of seventy Beni Atiya crossed the
frontier into the Hejaz to the east of Mudawwara, despite the attempts of a small
Transjordan police patrol to hold them up. They were supposed to be heading
for Tebuk, a place the loyalty of whose garrison has long been considered
doubtful owing to the failure of the Hejazi Government to pay its members.
Nothing further had been heard of these raiders up to the 30th June. Ihe
Hejazi Government, faithful to the altered policy described in paragraph 181
above, received the news fairly philosophically. They did not fail, however, to
point the morals of the incident from their point of view, renewing their
accusations against the Amir Abdullah and their demand for an early treaty
settlement and hinting at the danger of retaliation by incensed Nejdis. The
Transjordan authorities promptly incarcerated at Kerak three leading sheikhs in
order to discourage any further parties of Beni Atiya from invading the Hejaz.
McocDonnell Investigation.
185. As stated elsewhere, Mr. Hope Gill pressed in May for the settlement
of the Hejazi Government’s contribution to the cost of this enquiry. Sir A. Ryan
reverted to the subject in June, but the moment was not propitious for energetic
action, and the claim remained unsettled.
Customs Relations.
186. Final form had been given in March to the reply to be given to the
Hejazi Government, if they should revert (but not otherwise) to this long-standing
question, which has been in abeyance for practical purposes since 1930. In the
absence of any fresh representations from the Hejazi side, the reply continued
to be held up throughout May and June; nor did the Legation inform the Hejazi
Government of a decision of’the Transjordan Government, reported by the High
Commissioner in May, to authorise, subject to certain conditions, the passage
through Transjordan between Syria and Hejaz-Nejd of goods, other than arms
and ammunition, the importation of which into Transjordan itself is prohibited.
Iraq.
187. Some trouble arose in February owing to the arrival of a Nejdi force
of twenty-five men and two armed cars at a well called Judaidat-al-Arar on
the Iraq-Nejd frontier, and a claim made by the commanding officer to levy taxes
on tribes in the vicinity. The force withdrew on the arrival of two Iraqi desert
police cars, but the Nejdis reappeared in March, and the claim^ to tax any
tribesmen entering Nejd territory, to which apparently the Hejaz-Nejd Govern
ment consider Judaidat-al-Arar to belong, was reasserted in a letter from the
Governor of Skaka to the Sheikh of the Iraqi Aneyza. Although the Iraqi
Government have stated in at least one communication that Judaidat is
considered to be an Iraqi well, they do not seem to be very sure of their ground
for a territorial claim, and to rely more on an article in the I qair protocols
prohibiting any military use by either side of watering places near the frontier.
The Legation in Jedda is unaware of the position on the spot during May and
June, but, from language held by the Iraqi Charge d Affaires to Sir A. Ryan
on the 6th and 9th June, it appeared that the dispute was still in being. Dr. Naji
spoke of the possibility of regarding the well as lying actuall-v on the frontier and
being bisected by it.
188. The Ibn Rifada affair gave rise to rumours of more widespread trouble
involving the frontier with Iraq, and they were perhaps stimulated by the news of
the sudden resurn of Sir F. Humphrys to Bagdad, due, in fact, to quite other
reasons, about that time. The Legation has no knowledge of any real malaise
on that frontier, apart from the Judaidat affair. The best of the bazaar yarns
was that King FeisaFs son had gone against his father and engaged in some