مجموعة ٦/ ٩ "تقارير جدة يناير ١٩٣١ -" [ظ‎‎٣‎٧‎١] (٨٠٢/٧٤٣)

2
Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
2. We have got back to the bad position of last year. The Amir Feisal
remains Minister, but performs none of the duties of his office as such. Fuad Bey
Hamza continues to be the working Minister, but spends little time in Jedda. He
was there from the 9th to the 11th May, the 27th to the 30th May and the 11th to
the 18th June. He went to Taif immediately after the King’s departure for
Riadh on the 28th June. So far as the British Legation is concerned
infrequency and shortness of Fuad Bey’s visits have not caused as much incon
venience as formerly, the slate having been pretty clean as regards current
business during the period under review.
Finance.
3. After the pilgrimage the financial situation became more or less
desperate. Money is still found somehow for urgent requirements, eg., the
King’s visit to Nejd, but whatever gold reserve there was is believed to be
practically exhausted and it has become more and more a matter of hand-to-mouth
expedients. The relations between the Government and the Dutch Bank were
still obscure early in May, but it later became evident that the bank would do no
more to help the Government either by bolstering up the exchange or by lending
money. The National Conference, which sat in June (see paragraph 19), had no
solution to offer. It helped to give coherence to the growing volume of discontent
which has become more or less articulate on two points, viz., the excessive amount
of money spent abroad, much of it on luxury articles like motor-cars, and the
extent to which the Hejaz is mulcted for the support of Nejd. The King had no
ear for suggestions that the country should have a proper budget and that Sheikh
Abdullah Suleiman, his Director-General of Finance,, w'as the source of all evil.
His Majesty’s mind has turned more and more on the possibility of getting an
outside bank to come to his help.
4. It is suggested that a bank might be found to provide £200,000 in return
for certain privileges like a position resembling that of a State bank, a monopoly
of banking operations and the right to issue notes. It is said that offers have been
made by the Amir Lutfullah, a rich Syrian in Egypt, who played a role in Hejazi
financial affairs during the last agony of the Hashimite regime. He has main
tained some sort of an agency in Jedda and an underling of his visited Jedda early
in June, ostensibly to clear up a difficulty about the lease of a house. The Banque
Misr is also said to be disposed to do business. The King would probably hate
to get money from Egypt, if it could be got elsewhere. In his statement to
Sir A. Ryan on the 13th June (see paragraph 41), Fuad Bey harked back to
the time when His Majesty’s Government had subsidised Ibn Saud
as well as King Hussein. When the King received Sir A. Ryan
on the 17th June he did not refer to this, but asked whether His
Majesty’s Government could help him to bring in a British concern to undertake
the duties of a State hank. He named no names, but may have had in mind the
Eastern Bank, or possibly Lloyds. He spoke of having had other offers and asked
for an early answer to his request to His Majesty’s Government. Sir A. Ryan
telegraphed the request to London on the 19th June, but no reply was received up
to the 30th June. Before Sir A. Ryan was approached, a strong appeal had been
made to the Acting Dutch Charge d'Affaires, on the eve of his departure for
Holland, to induce the Netherlands Government to persuade the principals of the
Dutch Bank to be more accommodating.
5. Fresh efforts were made early in May (see March-April report, para
graph 5) to rehabilitate the exchange. One expedient was to raise a sort of forced
loan in nickel with a view to reducing the volume of it in the market. The
money changers’ shops were closed down about the same time. Little has since
been heard about nickel, but the silver rival, after vicissitudes, settled into a
steady decline in June and at the end of the month stood at about 14 riyals to
the £, as against the official rate of 10. One of the remedies contemplated for
restoring the value of the silver and nickel currency is to generalise its use
throughout the whole of Ibn Sand’s dominions. The King spoke hopefully about
this scheme to Sir A. Ryan on the 17th June. He is said to have hit on the plan
of giving his largess to the Nejdi tribes in riyals and to have taken a large
quantity of them to Riadh for the purpose.