'File 8/15 Arab Series - 1933-1939' [‎108v] (216/434)

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Memorandum No. 193 (2883/147/29), dated the 30th November 1935.
His Majesty’s Charge d’Affaires at Jedda, present^ liis compliments
to H. E. the Viceroy of India (F. and P.), and has the honour £o transmit
to him the under-mentioned documents.
To Foreign Office, despatch No. 344 of 304h November 1935, regard
ing Economic situation in JSaudi Arabia.
Enclo. to S. No. (69).
Letter from H. M.’s Charge d’affaires, Jedda, to the Foreign Office,
No. 344 (2881/147/29), dated the 30th November 1935.
In my despatch No. 370 (3200/61/34), of the 11th December, 1934
[S. No. (11)], 1 had the honour to submit a brief review of the general
financial and economic situation in Saudi Arabia. I now propose, after
an interval of almost twelve months, to attempt a similar appreciation,
necessarily as brief and perhaps as fragmentary as in previous years, in
view of the absence of reliable statistics and the lack of authoritative
sources of information.
2. Whilst during the previous twelve months, Saudi finances were
heavily engaged in meeting and satisfying the demands of the Saudi-
Yemen war and its settlement, the period under review may be held to have
witnessed the liquidation of the immediate legacies of the conflict and a
renewal of the activities of the Minister of Finance, now less pre-occupied
with the duties of his second office of Deputy Minister of Defence, to find
fresh sources of revenue to repair the seriously deplenished financial re
sources of the state.
3. Some relief was afforded early in the year by a further increase in
the nuityber of foreign pilgrims performing the Hajj in 1935. Not only
did this figure increase from 25,291 in 1934 to 33,898 but an exceptional
number of distinguished personages and well-to-do pilgrims visited the
Hejaz this year, a matter of some point when the general level of wealth
amongst incoming pilgrims has fallen so markedly in these lean years.
The beneficent effects of the increase brought comfort to all classes in the
Flejaz, but complaints were not wanting that the Government had appro
priated to themselves the lion’s share of the pilgrimage harvest, and dis
tress, even amongst merchants, motor-car proprietors and pilgrim-guides,
all of whom might have been expected to have benefitted most by a larger
pilgrimage, was only partially alleviated. Certain foreign companies in
Jedda, however, had a more satisfactory year,, upon completing their
accounts after the Hajj, both Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey & Co. (Sudan)
Ltd. and Messrs. Sharqieh, Ltd., being able to record some improvement,
the latter having achieved a reasonably good profit albeit, according to Mr.
Philby, a “paper” one. *
4. Customs receipts form the other main item of Saudi revenue, and
during the twelve months under review, these, although no official figures
are available, may be expected to have risen in sympathy with the increase
in the numbers of pilgrims. Other sources of revenue are of subordinate
importance; concessions have not yet commenced to yield steady revenue for
operations by the California Arabian Standard Oil Company for the pro
duction of oil in Hasa though promising, have not yet been completely suc
cessful, and gold-mining operations by the Saudi Arabian Mining Syndi
cate upon which I have reported separately, have not yet reached the pro
duction stage, though here also there are believed to be grounds for opti
mism. As statistics of any description are, in the absence of official figures
«yf gome interest I give for what they are worth estimates, given in the