'File 8/7 I Jidda Intelligence Reports' [‎94v] (188/536)

4
III—Relations with Powers outside Arabia.
67. There is little of interest to record under this heading. The pilgrimage
and the predominant importance of the negotiations in regard to relations between
Saudi Arabia and 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 prevented any important subjects ot her than the
latter from being pursued between His Majesty s Government and the Saudi
Government. The French Charge d’Affaires has been almost invisible but is said
to have taken a strong line on behalf of the lady mentioned in paragraph 72 below.
The Netherlands representative has been kept busy, despite the smallness ot this
year s pilgrimage from Java, by arrangements for the repatriation of over 2,U
destitutes, who have been accumulating for some time past and are now being
sent home at the joint cost of private contributors to a charitable fund and the
Government of the Dutch East Indies. The Persian Charge left Jedda, with his
usual joy in terminating his short spells there, on the 25th April. Afghanistan
has been in evidence owing to the large percentage of Afghans in a small overseas
pilgrimage and the presence among them of several diplomats beside the Afghan
Minister for Foreign Affairs. An Afghan consulate has been established in
principle in Jedda, and it "was announced on the 14th April that bilahuddm l^ba 11
Saljuqi had obtained a Saudi exequatur with effect from the 11th April. Ibis ^
gentleman is also consul at Bombay, and the present intention seems to be merely
fo detail him for work at Jedda during the pilgrimage season. He arrived on
the 16th March and left for India on the 25th April.
IV.— Miscellaneous.
68. Sir Andrew Pyan cleared up with Fuad Bey on the 1st April the affair
of the visit of H.M.S. Penzance to the Farsan Islands, which, it proved on a review
of previous correspondence, ought either not to have taken place or ought to have
been notified to the Saudi Government. The latter seem to be contemplating the
adoption of general regulations for the visits of foreign warships to othei ports.
Meanwhile the Farsan Islands’ affair cast no shadow over the visit of Penzance
to Jedda from the 1st to 8th April. Several of her Somali ratings made the
pilgrimage. , . „
69. The Imperial Airways Hanno, one of the large aeroplanes used for the
Indian service, made a forced landing near Jubail, after having lost its way in
thick weather, on the 31st March and got into difficulties in the sand. It was
fortunately possible to inform the Saudi Government without delay and their
subsequent remonstrance was comparatively mild, but the incident has drawn
attention to the difficulty of avoiding at least occasional flying over and even
landings of a kind which they resent as being violations of territory. The local
authorities behaved w^ell and helped to extricate the Hanno from its predicament
without awaiting instructions, so that she reached Bahrein safely on the 1st April.
70. Mr. A. S. Calvert arrived in Jedda on the 22nd April and took up his
duties as head of the Chancery of the Legation, in succession to Mr. Hope Gill.
71. Lady Evelyn Cobbold returned from the Mecca pilgrimage on the
7th April, exhausted, and not having met Ibn Saud, but happy in the illusion that
she was the first European of her sex to accomplish the pilgrimage. She left for
England on the 9th April. A certain relief was perceptible in various quarters,
butTit was doubtless due to ignorance only that a local paper transformed her name
into “ the Lady Zeynab Awful Bubble.”
72. Lady Evelyn had a potential rival in the person of a Frenchwoman with
a singular past in Syria, who had conceived the idea of getting to Mecca and
obtaining copy for a book by marrying ad hoc a Nejdi sojourner in byria. The
couple were foiled by French authorities in feyria, but were united, it is said, by a
Qadhi at Haifa. When they got to Jedda the husband was unable to get per
mission for the lady to go to Mecca. Shortly afterwards he died in Jedda, in
circumstances which convinced the Saudi authorities that she had poisoned him.
Meanwhile the lady had contracted an intimacy with the handsome but ne’er-do-
well son of the French Charge d’Affaires. This young man has been wafted away,
but at the end of the month the lady was still in durance pending a decision as to
whether she should be put to death or merely deported.