File 57/1905 ‘Arabia: - Situation in Yemen (1905-11). Arab revolt against Turks. Imam of Sanaa’s letter to the King. Fighting in Yemen 1911. Agreement between the Turks & the Imam’ [‎137r] (278/692)

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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government! ^ f
ASIATIC TURKEY AND ARABIA
CONFIDENTIAL.
[July 4.]
Section 6.
[23944]
No. 1.
Sii' G. Lowther to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received July 4.)
(No. 424.)
Sir, Constantino'ple, June 28, 1910.
I HAVE the honour to forward herewith a despatch from His Majesty’s consul
at Jeddah, being a report on the state of the Hedjaz under the constitutional regime.
I have, &c.
GERA ED LOWTHER.
Enclosure in No. 1.
Consul Monahan to Sir G. Lowther.
[My reason for making the enclosed “ private and confidential ” is that I think it
should never be seen by any Mussulman, and all the staff of this consulate are
Mussulmans.—J. H. M.]
(Private and Confideiitial.)
Sir, Jeddah, June 7, 1910.
WITH reference to my despatch No. 12, Confidential, of the 12th March, 1909, I
have the honour to submit the following observations on the condition of the Hedjaz
under the parliamentary regime.
The condition of the province now differs little from its condition under the old
regime, except that pilgrims continue to suffer much less extortion. In the proceedings
of Parliament hardly any interest is taken.
In and about Jeddah there were in the winter and spring of 1908-9 some signs of
awakening. Some sportsmen, both natives and Europeans, used to go out shooting to
considerable distances, soldiers used to go out for firing practice, and a Jeddah news
paper was started with a Syrian Christian, an energetic young man, as editor. But
before the winter of 1909 the newspaper had died a natural death, the Bedouins had
again become dominant, almost up to the walls, and the old half-mile walk to the
northward between the barracks and the arm of the sea had again become, as it still
remains, the only exercise that could be safely taken outside the town. The Bedouins
have now become perhaps more dangerous than ever, as they^ have audaciously
recaptured, just outside the town, eleven negro slaves whose liberation the Butish and
French consulates had just obtained, and as the Ottoman Government has consequently
ordered that no slaves of Bedouins are for the present to be liberated (see my despatches
No. 15 of the 22nd May and No. 16 of the 26th May,^ 1910). _
About the slave trade, which is not openly carried on m Jeddah, I do not know
much except that it is still flourishing. . r, ■ ^
A municipality was set up in Mecca last September for the rs nne. 1S ™ e
work of the Mecca “ Committee of Union and Progress,” a secret body of about fifty
members, Turkish officers and Turks settled in the town, and is opposed by the grand
shereef, from whom it has taken for itself the tithe on dates, fruit, \ege a es, an re
wood. It has imposed a tax for lighting and cLaning of about 2,9. a )eai on eac i louse,
and has hung up some hundreds of petroleum street-lamps. ^ ^ ecca ma} per aps e
really progressing a little. The long-established Jeddah municipa l ) aS r. ^
able to levy such a cleaning and lighting tax. The twenty-eig i ci izens o ec • ,
for their riot ius resistance eighteen months ago to the imposi ion o a municipa ,
were some months later arrested (I reported the arrest o se\ en een o ^
despatch No. 15 of the 5th April, 1909), and were ten months ago sent off to Beirout
(not Salonica as was reported in Jeddah despatch No. 45 of 30th J?
trial, have within the last three weeks all come back to the
have gone for business or pleasure to Constantinople, all the-^ ^ 1 *
, OCOREI ARV’S S(
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