'File 8/15 Arab Series - 1933-1939' [‎113v] (226/434)

mailing steady progress. Mr. Twitchell recently informed me that dia
mond-drilling, earned out by six Swedish employees of the syndicate, was
now proceeding night and day, and that a depth of some 80 feet had been
attained.
2 . Since my despatch under reference the personnel of the syndicate has
been further increased by the arrival of two British employees, Messrs.
Dunckley and McDermott, the former as manager of the Jedda office and
the latter, a son of a director of the syndicate, as a surveyor; of two Ame
ricans, one Dutchman, one German and one Greek. Mr. C. L. W.
Bindloss, the engineer on the Jedda staff of Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey and
Co. (Sudan) (Limited), also has now taken up a similar post under the syn
dicate.
3. A large quantity of stores, vehicles and machinery, including the
diamond drills, have arrived since my despatch under reference, and a great
proportion has been successfully transported to the mine, in spite of diffi
culties over one stretch of the road Jedda-Asfan-al-Birka-Mahd-adh-
Dhahab, on which work is still proceeding.
4. Work is also going on in the construction of houses, built of local
stone, at the mine, whilst at Jedda it is reliably stated that the syndicate
have acquired an area of some 300 or 400 yards square, about 1 mile north
of the town colse to the shore, where it is proposed to erect houses for the
staff, workshops store-rooms and garages, and it is also projected in clue
course to construct a pier out to deep water to facilitate the loading and
unloading of their materials.
5. According to revised estimates, I should now he disposed to place
the mine at roughly 23° 30' N. by 41° E. An unconfirmed statement has
reached me that an area of 1 square mile has been granted by the syndicate
to a company, perhaps a subsidiary company, formed to prospect and exploit
that area.
6 . I am sending a copy of this despatch to Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan and the De
partment of Overseas Trade. u, |
( 11 )
(Received on 1st February 1936, with Political Secretary's letter No. 3,
dated 16th January 1936.)
i 1 I
: : 1 ' i )
Letter from H. M.’s Minister Jedda, to the Foreign Office, No. 355,
DATED THE 14TH DECEMBER 1035.
With reference to Mr. Calvert’s despatch No. 336 of November 25th
r S. No. (9)], I have the honour to state that the Umm-al-Qura of Nov-
embei 29th published a speech delivered by Muhammad Tahir ad-Dabbagh
before King Abdul Aziz at Riyadh. This speech, which is in the nature
of a pious recantation, of past errors, is not worth reproducing. It may,
however, be of interest to record that Tahir ad-Dabbagh was presented to
me by Fuad Bey Hamza at the race-meeting at Riyadh at which I was pre
sent on November 25th and that he was a guest at the dinners given in my
honour by the King and the Crown Prince on that and the following even-
ing.
2 Fuad Bey was full of mischievous glee when he effected the introduc
tion at the races. I told ad-Dabbagh that I was glad to see him back in
his own country and hoped he would long remain in it; adding that, if he
had come back sooner, he would have saved me a great deal of trouble,
lie is an eg^-shaped man of perhaps about 45 with slightly converging eyes