'File 8/7 I Jidda Intelligence Reports' [‎79r] (157/536)

the previous day, confined himself to leaving cards on them on the 24th December
at the local “ Foreign Office ” building. Hafiz Wahba, however, lunched that
day at the Legation in response to a previous invitation while at Mecca. Fuad
Hamza called on His Majesty’s Minister on Boxing Day to discuss Asir and
connected matters, entertained him and Mr. Hope Gill to lunch in the “ Foreign
Office to meet the Amir Feisal, and left with the latter and Hafiz Wahba for
Mecca on the same afternoon; Hafiz Wahba was met with again at a picnic
luncheon tabled in his honour before forty guests at Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Fatima, a palm-grove
15 miles from Mecca, by the Indian vice-consul, a friend of long standing. On the
30th December this sole Saudi Minister Plenipotentiary sailed again for London
by way of Egypt, land of his birth.
Finance.
338. In paragraph 290 of the last Jedda report it was suggested, not very
hopefully, that the Saudi “ Debts Chest ” might, after all, have something in it.
November, however, confirmed the ruling pessimism as to its contents, when the
Government issued an obscure memorandum, in which they sought to explain
what endeavours they had made to meet their creditors and why it was that they
had failed. They claimed, nevertheless, to have issued 14 million Amiri piastres’
worth of drafts on Customs. In the “ Debts Chest,” they said, they had enough
cash to pay 5 per cent, interest on the remainder of their debts; that is to say,
the bulk. This memorandum was circulated to all the Government’s creditors in
Jedda, whom it convinced of the Government’s dishonesty. It was sent out a few
days before the return to his post of the Government’s financial adviser.
M. van Leeuwen had not been consulted in any way in its preparation, and was
not even told of it officially nor given a copy when he returned. The same circular
was sent to the British Legation with a brief intimation that it would apply to
the debts due to His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, a cavalier
proceeding considering the past history of their claims in respect of arms supplied
to Ibn Sand by the Government of India in 1929 and the cost of the MacDonnell
enquiry.
339. The Cairo Ahram's Jaffa correspondent was reported in the Egyptian
Gazette of the 28th December as having stated that, among the ex-Khedive Abbas
Hilmi’s financial schemes, was the opening of an Hejazi-Palestinian bank with a
capital of a million pounds, to which he would contribute half, Ibn Saud a fifth,
from a loan which Abbas Hilmi would make to him, and the United Kingdom,
French and Italian Governments a tenth apiece. It was also suggested that, in
order to further one of his political ambitions—namely, to secure for himself a
throne in Syria, or a throne in Palestine, or the Caliphate—in the Hejaz, the
ex-Khedive was ready to render further financial assistance to Ibn Saud, and
thereby purchase his support.
340. An error and an omission vitiated the summary of Saudi external
indebtedness given in paragraph 290 of the last report. As far as can now be
ascertained, this indebtedness stood at the end of December approximately as
follows :—
Creditor.
£ Gold.
Service.
The Poles
50,000
1930 arms.
Government of India
30,000
1929 arms.
The Soviets
30,000
1931 oil.
The Qusaibis
25,000
(at least)
Loans, &c.
Mr. Philby
20.000
Fords, machinery, &c.
“Shell”
15,000
1931 oil, stolen.
*“ Standard Oil ”
15,000
Ditto, partly stolen.
*“ Marconi’s”
15,000
(at least)
Wireless stations.
^German firms
10,000
Telephones, &c.
The “ Dutch Bank”
5,000
Loans.
The “ E.T.C.”
2,500
Current account.
His Majesty’s Government
1,700
MacDonnell investigation
219,200 (at least)
The bills for items marked “ which fell due in November, were not then
met and have not yet been replaced by any new arrangement. Possibly they also,
[711o—2] b 2