'File 8/7 I Jidda Intelligence Reports' [‎59r] (117/536)

efforts hitherto has been due to sabotage by other interests and that there would
be less danger of this, if the condenser water was not available.
168. Mr. Hope Gill was able to send home on the 18th May further infor
mation regarding Mr. Twitchell’s explorations on the Hasa Coast together with
a copy of a “ somewhat testy ” letter which he addressed to the King on the
27th February, regarding his efforts generally and various causes militating
against their success in spite of the possibilities of the country.
169. Men of larger and vaguer ideas than those of Mr. Twitched floated
about in May and June. Reference has been made in paragraph 165 to the
approaches made to the Hejazi Government by the Amir Lutfullah and an agent
of the ex-Khedive. Another gentleman, who puts economic development in the
forefront of his dreams and schemes, is Mr. A. Ydlibi, the enterprising head of
a small business in Manchester. Having spied out the land in Jedda in January
and February in association with another Syrian, named Awaini, an intimate
of Fuad Bey Hamza, he appears to have gone home and to have sought to enlist
interest in oil and possible railway concessions in the Hejaz. From a statement
made by Sheikh Yusuf Yasin on the 24th June, it seems that Mr. Ydlibi claims
to have got the support of the Calico Printers’ Association, (Limited), who had,
however, according to the same statement, been given discouraging advice by His
Majesty’s Government. The true facts of what had passed in England were not
known in Jedda up to the end of June.
170. It was announced on the 9th May that the Hejazi Government had
arranged to import an adequate supply of agricultural machinery to be
distributed to farmers in the Hejaz and Nejd and to be paid for by them in
annual instalments.
Wireless.
171. There was no news of any further stations being completed in May and
June, but the Marconi expert, M. Boucicault, is understood to have gone to Hasa
to work in that area. It is not certain that he completed the station at Qaf before
leaving as was supposed (see January-March report, paragraph 16).
Postal Communication.
172. Following on Sir H. V. Biscoe’s conversations with Ibn Saud in
January, th§ Government of India agreed in principle in May to the establish
ment of a postal service between Hasa and the outer world via Bahrein, and
communicated to the Legation, for transmission to the Hejazi Government, their
proposals as to how it should be organised.
Legislation on Rents.
173. A regulation published on the 6th May affirmed the right of landlords
to dispose freely of their property by contract. It, however, prescribed that, in
cases of non-agreement with their tenants, they could not evict the latter before
the 6th June, 1932, and it established a moratorium for arrears of rent, which
were made payable in two instalments in December 1932 and December 1933 at
the rate of 10 rivals to the pound (i.e., the pound gold).
Census.
174. A regulation published on the 24th June, after a certain amount of
preliminary publicity, including an assurance that the measure had nothing to
do with conscription or taxation, ordered a general census of the male population
of the Hejazi towns. It was clear that one of the main objects was to determine
the numbers of natives and foreigners, and the regulation, though unexception
able in principle, created much misgiving among people of doubtful or dual
nationality, many of whom seemed likely to be swayed more by considerations of
interest than by ideas as to their legal status in filling up the declaration of
nationality in the forms distributed. They were the more unhappy because of the
difficulty of deciding between the risks, great each way, of admitting themselves
to be Hejazis or claiming to be aliens.
The Rub-al-Khali.
175. The “ Umm-al-Qura ” of the 13th and 20th May had two long articles
on the Rub-al-Khali, with special reference to Mr. Philby’s journey. This is