مجموعة ٦/ ٩ "تقارير جدة يناير ١٩٣١ -" [ظ‎‎٣‎٥‎٧] (٨٠٢/٧١٥)

' 16
ammunition, the procedure laid down in annex II. section II of the Arms
1 raffic Convention is to be carried out in the case of vessels flying the flag
of one of the signatories to that convention or flying no flag. Subject to the
provisions of paragraph 2 above, native vessels flying the flag of a country
that is not a signatory should be taken to Aden.
“ 4 Special agreements regarding the right of search for arms remain
in force with Italy and Muscat.
" 5. It is the custom of the Governments of the various divisions of
Arabia which border on the Red Sea, to arm small vessels from time to time
for the protection of their respective shipping and the repression of
smuggling. Such vessels should, of course, not be interferred with."
VII. —Pilgrimage.
1931 Pilgrimage Report.
74. A very detailed and consequently somewhat bulky pilgrimage report on
the 1931 season was compiled in the Legation in September and despatched on
4he 29th. The local pilgrimage conditions had showed no improvement on those
of the previous year. The best that could be said for Ibn Sand was that he had
maintained security; the worst, that the inefficiency and corruption of his Moslem
Arab regime in the Holy Places continued increasingly to contrast with the care
bestowed on pilgrims by the infidel Powers.
Nigerian Pilgrim Destitutes.
75. In September it was calculated that there were some 500 Nigerians
destitute in Jedda without means to return to Africa and without sufficient work
to support themselves in the Hejaz (see July-August report, paragraph 80). As
there was no prospect of their being able to find employment for many months to
come, the Legation was faced with the necessity of arranging for their repatria
tion to the east coast of Africa, whence they might work their way as usual across
the continent. On the 6th October His Majesty’s Charge d’Affaires addressed
the Sudan authorities in this sense, and enquired whether special arrangements
could be made to admit these destitutes at Suakin, without payment of the usual
quarantine dues, and either to absorb them in the local labour market or,
alternatively, to entrain them for districts in or beyond the Sudan, where their
labour could be utilised, and whence they could work their way homeward in
the traditional fashion. No reply was received by the end of the month. More
destitutes meanwhile began to arrive from the interior, where poverty was even
more acute than in Jedda.
VIII. —Slavery.
Slave Trade.
76. Also as a result of the inter-departmental consultation referred to in
paragraph 73. the following instructions in regard to searches for slaves in the
Red Sea were issued by His Majesty’s Government on the 2nd September : —
“ Suppression of Slave Trade.
“ There is no longer any general convention in force according the right
of search for slaves, but the convention of the 10th September, 1919, revising
the General Acts of Berlin (1885) and of Brussels (1890), states that the
signatories (United States of America. Belgium, British Empire, France.
Italy, Japan, Portugal) will endeavour to secure the complete suppression of
slavery in all its forms, and of the slave trade by land and sea. It can also
be argued that the obligations of the General Act of 1890 still apply to
countries who were parties to it. but not of the 1919 convention, and therefore
to Turkey and the States who have succeeded her. The latter would,
however, probably refuse to admit this. A further legal basis of a similar
kind could possibly be found in the Anglo-Turkish Treaty of 1881 for the
suppression of the African slave trade. A more definite legal basis in